The Ace, The Queen, and The Two of Hearts
by TPKTheStoicTPK
Summary: A tale of a battle between two great forces and those who get swept up in it. As the two level 5s face each other a conspiracy is revealed and a romance blooms, but what does fate hold in store for The Ace, The Queen, and The Two of Hearts? Pairings KurokoXMisaka, Light SatenXUiharu.
1. Toaru Tachimawari no Kakidashi

Toaru Tachimawari no Kakidashi

A Certain Beginning of Action

* * *

Misaka clutched her singed shoulder with her free arm as she rushed into the nearest building, hoping to lose her pursuers. The domicile was a tall office building several stories high, the sides lined by large plate glass windows. The building had obviously been long abandoned, several windows were shattered and the outside showed hints of the stress the structure had endured over the years. The inside supported this theory, the few remaining pieces of the lobbies furniture were either scattered, broken, or both and a layer of dust had settled over every surface.

Running over to the elevator, Misaka pressed her palm against the call button, powering the long-unused electronics and opening the door. She stepped inside the old decrepit box and pressed the button for the top floor. The ride was bumpy with the elevator creaking and moaning as it rose ever higher.

Finally it reached the top, fortunately in one piece, Misaka stumbled out making sure to fry the elevator's electronics to make sure her pursuers couldn't use it.

She made her way across the room. The floor lacked anything save for a blanket of dust and, closer to the windows, several shards of broken glass. Thin columns dotted the room in two orderly rows, but they were worthless for cover. Misaka reached the far wall and sank against it, her breathing shallow and heavy from exertion, but she knew she would not have long to rest before they arrived and the fight would resume. She glanced around looking for anything that might give her a tactical advantage. Her search was in vain however and she could find nothing of any help before she heard the echoing steps and cries of her pursuers rising up from the staircase.

Standing up once again, Misaka took a deep breath and relaxed her injured shoulder. She readied herself as the group of ESPers ran out of the staircase and into the middle of the room, facing down their cornered prey. They congregated around Tekada, their de facto leader and only shield against Misaka's fearsome abilities. An arrogant grin spread on his face as he stood there.

"You have nowhere left to run, Railgun. Looks like you aren't nearly as tough as I've heard if you're this easy to beat." He said, voice full of stupid thuggish conceit, "Maybe if you beg we'll go easy on you."

Misaka let off a multitude of sparks in warning, but she knew that attacking him with anything short of her railgun was pointless. After all, even a Level 5's powers are, for the most part, reined in by the laws of nature. Even one as powerful as Tokiwadai's ace, the Electric Princess herself, was nigh powerless against an opponent who could control his body's resistance to electricity. An ability which not only protected himself from any electric attacks against him but also allowed him to function as a lightning rod protecting the other thugs as the lightning took the path of least resistance through him into the ground.

Tekada, knowing this, merely laughed, "Go on and try but it's useless," he said as he took a step forward, drawing a fierce looking knife with a ceramic blade. The other ESPers readied their attacks as well, the pyrokinetic that had hurt her before eagerly preparing a fireball for another go, "you're –".

The last word was lost in the massive groan the building suddenly gave off. The ground beneath Misaka's feet began to shake, chunks of floor gave way in the middle of the room, as the group of thugs looked around frantically for the cause of the commotion. Larger chucks began falling as the shaking intensified, swallowing up several of the thugs as Misaka felt the floor beneath her begin to give way.

Before she had a chance to react, Misaka found herself outside on the roof of a neighboring structure. She watched the building she had just been in collapse, the structure falling neatly down and inwards as floor after floor gave way, looking almost like a professionally controlled demolition. Soon there was nothing but a pile of rubble where there had once been a tall building.

It was then that Misaka became aware of a familiar presence clasping her right arm saying something and trying to grab her attention.

"Onee-sama," Kuroko called to her again

"Kuroko?" Misaka inquired, confused by the events that had just transpired.

"Onee-sama, are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?" Then upon seeing her injured left shoulder, she gasped in shock and horror, "Onee-sama! Your shoulder!" she stated, as if Misaka had not known.

"What are you doing here?" Misaka asked, composing herself, "how did you know where I was?"

"Let's talk about that later, we need to look at that injury," Kuroko insisted, grabbing her Onee-sama's right arm again. Soon they were gone. A series of quick, successive teleports landed them in what looked to be an old clinic. Compared to the other buildings she had seen in District 17 it was in far better shape, but was still coated with a layer of dust. Kuroko helped her onto one of the beds and began rooting around the large backpack Misaka just noticed she had been carrying. She pulled out several things then finally found what she was looking for, a pair of scissors.

Kuroko hopped up on the bed next to Misaka and gingerly took her injured arm, "Hold still please," she said and carefully cut away the singed fabric of her sleeve, revealing the burnt red flesh underneath.

Misaka stayed still as she let Kuroko do her work, having been trained by Judgment in first aid. She looked over at the teleporter and said, "Now can you please tell me what you are doing here?"

"I was worried about my Onee-sama," she said simply as she examined the injury, determining that the burns were not too severe but still looked quite painful, "Justifiably it would seem," Her voice was gentle but Misaka could hear a tinge of hurt and betrayal buried deep within it.

"Kuroko…" she began, looking for the right words, "There is a reason I didn't tell you about this. This is my fight and I don't want my friends to get hurt in a fight that doesn't involve them."  
I'm fully aware of that," Kuroko snapped bitterly, "It's the same reason you always give when you go off alone into dangerous situations. But do you really think that your friends want you to get hurt? That **I **want you to get hurt? Your fights involve me because they involve you." Her voice was colored with outrage as tears began welling up in her eyes, but her hands were as gentle as before as they cautiously applied balm to the burns.

Misaka sat there for a while, unable to refute what Kuroko had just said and unwilling to simply brush it off and force Kuroko to go back anyway. Not that she could do that anyway. Kuroko was the most annoyingly persistent person she had ever met and, for some unfathomable reason, was utterly devoted to her "Onee-sama". Misaka simply resigned herself to the fact that Kuroko would follow her wherever it was possible to go, and the thought actually brought a smile to her face for an instant.

"How did you do that thing?" Misaka asked, surprising Kuroko who had been expecting an order to leave, or at least a scolding of some form, "you know, with the building. That was you right?"

"It's a trick I learned during the Level Upper incident. I was facing an opponent I couldn't hit directly, so I teleported the panes of glass from the building we were fighting in into the support columns and brought the building down," Kuroko said, wiping the tears from her eyes, glad that she had not been rejected this time.

Misaka nodded as Kuroko finished bandaging her arm. "Now Onee-sama," Kuroko began, "perhaps you better tell me what exactly is going on."

"Only if you tell me how you knew to look for me and where to find me," Misaka said, still curious as to how this had been, fully expecting Kuroko to have placed some sort of tracker on her person or to have hired a bloodhound to sniff her out..

"How I knew to look for you?" Kuroko repeated as if the answer was the most obvious thing in the world, "You haven't been yourself for the past couple days now. Even though you can hide it from some others I could tell as clear as day," She said with pride, "as to how I found you, I simply followed your path on the street camera footage at Judgment. Then I packed up, came to the district, and listened for the sounds of a fight. It didn't take me long," she said, sighing in exasperated resignation.

"Hey," Misaka bristled, "it's hardly my fault that I was attacked."

"Then whose fault is it today?"

"Shokuhou Misaki," She replied then began explaining everything that had led up to this ordeal.

It had happened four days ago when she had been called down to the headmaster's office.

She arrived at the large heavy oak doors, slightly confused. She did not know why she had been called down here, her mind already in the habit of ignoring the multitude of offences she had committed this month alone, but he knew it had to be serious to be called down here so suddenly. She took a deep breath and pushed open the door, entering the room with a bow to its single occupant, an old, balding man in an extremely expensive suit at an extravagant desk, littered with various papers and files.

"Ah, Miss Misaka, have a seat," he said, gesturing to a large comfortable chair which faced his desk.

"Thank you sir," she said politely, taking the proffered chair.

The headmaster sat back in his chair and steepled his fingers, glancing at the papers on his desk before looking again at Misaka as he slowly began.

"I truly regret to tell you this Miss Misaka," he said with a sigh, "there has been some legislature raised which prevents a single school from having more than one level 5 enrolled. Trust me when I say that I wish this was not so, and I have tried everything within my power to prevent this, but to no avail."

Her heart dropped as she heard this, "so I'm being expelled?" she asked hardly believing her ears. 'What is this ridiculous law,' she thought, 'and why the hell am I the one being expelled?"

"Not necessarily…" the headmaster replied hesitantly, "in an effort to make it fair, the legislature state that the level 5's affected may choose for themselves which of them will leave for another school. If they cannot reach a peaceful agreement…" He paused for a second before continuing, "then the one who remains shall be decided by a test of skill."

From what Misaka knew about "The Queen", Tokiwadai's other level 5, she had no doubt that she would not leave willingly, and would be more than happy for an opportunity to try and prove that she was better than Misaka. But she was only the 5th ranked level 5 whereas Misaka was 3rd.

"What kind of test?" Misaka asked carefully. She was higher ranked than "The Queen" in power, but their abilities were so different that that didn't necessarily decide the victor.

"From what I understand, it is a battle of sorts taking place in a large abandoned section of the city. You enter from different ends of the city and fight until one of you is victorious, though I don't know the exact victory conditions."

Misaka was angered by this. It was such a barbaric proposition: setting two people against each other and letting them fight it out. Misaka, despite how it may look from the frequency in which she found herself in fights, was against such purposeless violence. With one spiky haired exception, she never attacked someone unless that person attacked her or her friends first. She wasn't some gladiator fighting for someone else's amusement.

"I understand how you must be feeling, "the headmaster said reassuringly, "so why don't you think it over and tell me what you've decided this evening, after school. Till then, head back to class and have a nice day."

"Yes sir," Misaka responded, standing up and bowing before leaving the room. The door had just closed behind her when she heard a voice.

"You should just quit now, save us both the trouble," Misaka turned to see none other than The Queen herself standing in the hall with a haughty, contemptuous look on her face.

"Listen, I don't want to have to fight you," Misaka warned.

"What a surprise, such a barbarous hooligan such as yourself being reluctant to fight," she gaped in a greatly exaggerated look of shock, "or maybe it's just fear. Rankings don't matter. So what if you're number 3, you're still weak and you know it. Maybe that's why you don't want to fight."

A few sparks escaped Misaka as her anger rose.

"Whether you fight or not, I'm going to be the winner. So I shall say it again, drop out and save both of us the trouble." She said before walking away with an arrogant stride.

Of course, nothing The Queen could have said could have more inflamed Misaka's will to fight than that. Misaka steeled her resolve and told the headmaster the next day that she would accept the challenge.

The two were given a couple days to prepare beforehand. They were allowed to bring and use whatever or whoever they wanted in the battle. Misaka, of course, didn't bring anything, convinced she could wrap this up quickly on her own without getting anyone else involved. After all, there was no way she could lose in a direct fight.

This morning, on the first day of the battle, the two Level 5's had both been led to separate ends of their battleground, district 17. They were given small tokens. The objective was to capture your opponents token by any non-lethal means necessary and bring it back to this point. Other than that there were no rules.

"After that I went searching for a while when I was ambushed by those people. The leader had some ability, it completely neutralized my lightning attacks, and there was nothing else. I got hit by one of them and so I tried putting some distance between us and think up a new strategy. That was right about when you showed up." She finished.

Kuroko leaned forward and snatched Misaka's hand "you need to win Onee-sama," she said frantically, "you can't change schools and leave me…"

Misaka pulled her hand away, "I was planning on winning but thanks for the suggestion." She said, standing up and looking around. "It's getting late and this seems like a good place to stay; it's a clinic so it should have a few semi-comfortable beds."

"Nope, this is probably the only one," Kuroko said smiling, her attitude changing in an instant, "guess we'll have to share."

Misaka glared at Kuroko and looked around for more beds, but it looked like everything that wasn't nailed down had been taken. Needless to say, the accuracy of Kuroko's statement annoyed Misaka.

When she had finally finished searching and reentered the main clinic Kuroko smiled at her and held out a plate with a large bun on it.

"It's a bit cold but it's your favorite," she prompted as she patted the spot beside her, "sit with me and enjoy."

Misaka did so, she was hungry and it was her favorite after all. Shortly after they ate, Kuroko was again rooting around her bag as Misaka examined the map of the district that Kuroko had brought, cursing herself for not preparing thoroughly. She looked through the map, allowing herself to become more familiar with the various facets and landmarks of the place.

"Oh Onee-sama," Kuroko suddenly sang, "I have another surprise for you." Misaka turned to see Kuroko holding out an exceedingly revealing, see-through negligee. "A change of clothes," Kuroko said with an innocent little smile.

With an audible thud, Misaka's fist connected with Kuroko's head, "Baka."

"Oww," Kuroko whined, rubbing the developing lump on her head, "it was only a joke, no need to hit me…" she reached back in and pulled out Misaka's usual bright green Gekota pajamas, "you do really need to learn to wear more mature clothing though Onee-sama, you can't wear Gekota print forever."

"B-be quiet," she snapped, snatching her PJs as a blush overtook her face, "it's none of your business." With that she stormed off to change in an adjourning room.

Now that she was alone she had a chance to think. This most recent event complicated matters a bit, she didn't want to have anyone get involved in this, she planned to do it all by her own merit. But once again Kuroko had wormed her way to her side, and she knew that her friend would never leave it willingly, and in all honesty Misaka didn't want to force her away at all. There was, after all, no one that she would rather have at her side, for many reasons, though she would never admit to some of them.

She walked back into the other room when she was finally finished changing. Kuroko had already changed into the negligee she had previously offered to Misaka. Her face, however, was steeled in a thoughtful expression that she often wore while in the middle of a case in her work at Judgment. The juxtaposition of the serious, no-nonsense professionalism of her expression with her… less than serious apparel brought a slight smile to Misaka's face.

As Misaka walked over to her Kuroko looked up. The serious expression quickly melted into the ever-so-familiar lecherous grin. "As much as I object to those, there is something about them that suits you Onee-sama."

"Just go to sleep," she said, too tired from her long day to deal with Kuroko's inanities, "and don't try anything funny, understand?"

"These accusations...so hurtful... and after all my kindness as well! All I want to do is show you my love Onee-sama."

"Then show it by respecting my personal space," she said in reply, laying down on the cot on the far side of Kuroko.

"Goodnight Onee-sama, "Kuroko said trying to settle herself on the uncomfortable bed.

"Goodnight Kuroko," she replied, doing the same. It had been a hard day, and in short order the two were asleep.


	2. Toaru Yume no Yoru

Toaru Yume no Yoru

A Certain Night of Dreams

* * *

Kuroko's eyes slowly opened to be greeted by nothingness, no sign of anything, no floor nor walls nor ceiling. Just an infinite span of silent void. It was then that the void spoke.

**"You give so much yet recieve so little," **it said in a voice of honey and thorns, **"you love that girl so much but she does nothing but hurt you, take advantage of you."**

That girl? It could only mean one person. "that's not true, my Onee-sama cares about me." She shouted back at the voice, resolve steeled in defense of her love.

**"She answers your love with nothing but pain and you think she cares? Hurting the one who does nothing but love and help you is not loving, it's not caring, it's hate. She hates you so hate her back."**

It had a point. Her Onee-sama did have a habit of hurting her just for trying to show her affection. "But Onee-sama... she does care... She'll love me... she will someday..." she said, her resolve shaking with each word as the voice echoed in her ears. _Stop doubting yourself, you're being weak again. Stop listening._

But she found she couldn't as the voice continued. **"Do not love someone so unworthy of you, hate someone who has caused you only pain. Hate Misaka, and show her the pain she has caused you tenfold."**

She resisted it, resisted the voice with all her being, but the roots of anger and hate sowed themselves within her, burrowing deeper and deeper, and as they burrowed the voice kept repeating **"Hate her, hurt her."** in a captivating melody that, try as she might, she could not ignore forever.

Then suddenly a sharp pain shot through her being. Her eyes shot open and she looked around, confused. "was that just a dream?" it had felt so real to her, she could still hear the voice ringing inside her head.

Then the sharp pain that had, moments ago, jolted her from her slumber shot through her again. She looked down at the source of the pain to see a still asleep Misaka, her arms wrapped around Kuroko's waist, pulling her closer to keep herself warm as a cold breeze ran throughout the room.

Kuroko froze, everything else forgotten as she was stunned by this surreal sight. "This is a dream," she thought, "something this magnificent couldn't possibly happen in real life." This theory was quickly scrapped as a spark jumped from the fringe of Misaka's hair to Kuroko's chest where her head was pressed against, shocking her with an all too real pain.

Not trusting herself to move just yet, Kuroko stayed still and lapped up the sweet nectar of this sight while she was still able to.

It was certainly not the first time Kuroko had seen Misaka asleep. With her work at Judgment and Tokiwadai's demanding homework she was often awake long after Misaka went to sleep. Still, each time she saw it the sight entranced her so.

Even in a setting as hectic and dire as they were in now, her face was calm, relaxed, peaceful. There was no sign of the fierce, determined, and slightly frightening expression which she often wore. Instead her face bore a sweet look of such childlike innocence it made Kuroko smile

She was motionless save for the gentle rising and falling of her humble chest as she calmly breathed in and out, as well as the occasional instances when she would unconsciously grip tighter to Kuroko: whether for warmth or security or comfort or perhaps all three.

Several more sparks leaped from Misaka's temple into Kuroko, each accompanied by a sharp jolt of pain. But she hardly felt it, so focused on the sight in front of her that the pain was completely lost on her.

Finally gathering her daring she decided to make her move. She moved slowly, as if she were working with a bomb or a wild animal, bringing her hand up slowly then moving it towards the head of the sleeping beauty in front of her. As it drew close her hand was assaulted by a stream of small sparks which issued from her other temple. She felt her fingers go numb but she ignored the unpleasant sensation. Soon her hands hovered an inch away from it's destination. She hesitated for a second then placed her hand on Misaka's smooth, soft hair. Gently, soothingly she stroked her lovely brown locks. She felt Misaka's grip shift as she subconsciously moved closer to Kuroko's comforting touch.

The sparks subtly reacted to her touch, shooting off in greater numbers every time her hand ran through her hair, reacting most noticeably as her thumb brushed over Misaka's temple and behind her ears.

Kuroko was ecstatic. Her Onee-sama was so close, and of her own accord. Not only that but she seemed to react, even enjoy, her touch. She craned her neck, hovering over her forehead and slowly moved in to kiss it.

But as she drew close a large spark discharged, travelling straight into Kuroko's puckered lips. She instinctively flinched, drawing back.

"Onee-sama…" she sighed quietly, "Even in your sleep you chastise me so harshly for my love, even as you seem to be encouraging it…"

**"She answers your love with nothing but pain and you think she cares?" **at her thought the voice from her dream suddenly echoed in her head again again.

All of Kuroko's happiness from the moment before evaporated as her dream came back to her in vivid detail. The doubt which had flared up at the voice's words came crawling back like a spider.

She sat there, motionless save for her hand, still mindlessly stroking her Onee-sama's hair, whether this was a bigger comfort to herself or Onee-sama she did not know. Her thoughts were cloudy and a tempest of doubt, anger, and despair roiled about within her.

She sat there for a couple of hours brooding, even as the first spears of dawn's light pierced the barely intact windows of the building

The rays of light fell upon the sleeper's face, briefly stirring her from her sleep before she retreated deeper into her pillow to return to the sleeps sweet grasp, the light pleasant touch that she felt running through her hair relaxing her as the soothing, enjoyable pressure lulled her back to sleep. It was several more minutes before she was aware enough to realize that her pillow felt different, far softer than the small, firm pillow that she had fallen asleep on. She was far too warm and comfortable to be in that same place that she had found so unpleasant the night before.

She slowly opened her eyes to see a small expanse of pale skin with an almost non-existent bump barely hidden by the transparent fabric of a provocative purple negligee. Realization soon fell upon her. Her eyes shot open and a blush lit up her face from the compromising position she found herself in, clinging to her friend like a teddy bear. Not only that but… it felt nice. Kuroko was warm and soft and her gentle stroking felt so nice and calming. She didn't want to move, to let go of Kuroko and leave this comfortable, pleasant place she found herself in.

These wishes and feelings confused and embarrassed Misaka, and soon that confusion and embarrassment transformed into an emotion she could deal with far more easily, anger. She looked up at the source of these emotions, expecting to see that perverted grin and lecherous eyes that would justify her anger or at least give it an acceptable target. But Kuroko wasn't grinning; she wore a troubled, thoughtful frown with a hint of sadness. Her eyes looked far off and unfocused. This confused her even more. She didn't know what to do. So she did what came naturally, lashing out blindly, enveloping her body in a cocoon of electricity which flowed into the nearest object. That object just happened to be Kuroko, who was strongly shocked by the unexpectedly powerful jolt of electricity.

The pain broke Kuroko's reverie as her hand flew back instinctively and she struggled to escape from the electric grip around her.

Misaka soon released her grip on Kuroko's waist and pushed herself away from her. She swung her legs over the bed, stood up, and stormed out of the room.

Kuroko sat on the bed, her body still twitching from her Onee-sama's most recent punishment. _Why did she just do that? _'What did I do to deserve such a severe shock? She was the one who attached herself to me, not the other way around. I controlled myself all night and endured her little shocks for hours, just to make her happing. I've been doing my best for her since I got here and she repays me like this?"

Her body stopped its spasming as tears filled Kuroko's eyes, 'No matter what I do or how hard I may try my love is rejected.' She wiped the tears away. _Whatever… let's just get this matter over with, there will be time to cry then._ Kuroko stood up and began changing, locking up her broken, heavy heart behind an iron veil of professionalism.

In the next room Misaka leaned against the wall and sank to the floor. She had come in here to think. 'Why did I do that? Why was I hugging Kuroko like that? Why…Why was I enjoying it.' She had always been on the receiving end of these interactions and usually in the worst possible places for them. So she had always felt justified in pushing away Kuroko's bold advances and public displays of affection to prevent embarrassement.

But the thing was, even though Misaka was loathe to admit it, even to herself, she didn't mind all of her affectionate little actions, she even enjoyed some of them. Whether it was the clingy hugs she received daily, or the barrage of kisses that Kuroko had showered her with after the fight against the AIM Burst, they made her feel loved, wanted, and accepted like almost nothing else. But the enjoyment she got out of them always confused her. She wasn't supposed to feel this way, not about her best friend and not about another girl. Even in the face of Kuroko's certainty that her love was pure, even if it was with another girl, Misaka had doubts. So she always rejected her, pushed her away in the perhaps futile hope that she would give up her advances and give up on her. She hoped to prove that this was just a stage for the two of them, a stage that would pass in time, like having an imaginary friend. But Kuroko's persistence and passion in her pursuits cast doubt on this hope time and time again.

Reaching no conclusion, Misaka simply sighed and stood up. These thoughts would be more suitable to dwell upon during a later date. She had more important matters to deal with than these strange emotions. First she needed to apologize to Kuroko, then she would wrap up this stupid contest as soon as possible. She changed into her uniform and went back into the main room.

Kuroko was already changed, packed and ready to leave. She was hanging by the door impatiently, her face steeled and carrying an obvious air of testiness.

Misaka walked over to her and said in a genuinely apologetic voice, "I'm sorry for zapping you Kuroko. I severely overreacted. Please forgive me."

Kuroko barely spared her a glance before saying, "whatever. Are you ready to go?"

Her response surprised Misaka. 'Kuroko… is angry with me? She's never been angry at me before. Did I really go that far overboard this time.' She thought, then decided to try again, "Kuroko…" she began once more before being abruptly interrupted.

"If you're ready then let's go." Kuroko said before doing just that. Misaka stood there for a second, confused and distressed over Kuroko's sudden change in attitude. Then she followed her out the door and briskly walked up to her, heart set on working this out. Once she had caught up to Kuroko's fast, irritated pace she tried again to say something, "I…" she had yet to get the second word out when Kuroko teleported 20 meters ahead of her.

This act disconcerted Misaka further. 'She's really hurt…. And it's all my fault,' regret for her impulsive action earlier welled up inside of her, "I'll make this better Kuroko, I swear I'll make this up to you. But for now I'll give you a little time to yourself.' Having a little thinking time always helped her calm down.

So Misaka trailed a considerable distance behind her as they walked through the abandoned streets of District 17 towards the first possible hiding place for The Queen. She was a notoriously snobby and spoiled person who would always prefer to stay in a nice, safe, comfortable place as she delegated any actual work to her legions. Because of this it was highly unlikely she would be hiding in any old, rundown building. She was probably in a big secure building that had withstood the years. These criteria had greatly narrowed down the search possibilities, though it still left several possible locations for them to search. But maybe they would get lucky and find it in the first place they looked.

However luck was obviously not on their side. Before they even reached the first location they were ambushed as a group of ten or so thugs poured from the alleys behind and in front of them, grinning at the success of their devious plan as they spread out to prevent the pair's retreat.

"Well well, what have we here, you two really shouldn't be playing around in such a dangerous place you know. You might get hurt." One of them said, confidence ringing in his voice. After all, it was 10 against 2 and the 2 were little girls, good for a little teasing but not the most fun to fight. "The Railgun" must just be overhyped, there was no way this middle school girl was anything other than just another arrogant little ESPer who thought she was better than everyone else.

Misaka gave off several intimidating sparks, "just back off, we have no business with you," she warned them, hoping to avoid a conflict and an unnecessary drain on her energy.

"Oh but we have business with you," he said drawing a handgun as a couple of the other thugs did the same, "Now I suggest you surrender nice and peaceful, or do you think you're little zaps are faster than our bullets." ESPer's weren't so special. Not even a level 5 is bulletproof after all. Soon he would have the mighty railgun begging for her life. Then he heard a small thud come from his gun, he looked down briefly to see a needle lodged directly in the barrel.

"You stupid uneducated thug," Kuroko said, the morning's built up anger not helped by this turn of events and slowly venting, "Lightning strikes are 20 times faster than that little gun. So don't you assume that, just because you have some shiny little toys, you are untouchable?" A small bit of her anger vented at the hapless thugs, she teleported aside, several meters away from Misaka and the thugs.

Misaka, in turn, took this as a signal to let loose, which she proceeded to do with extreme prejudice, her own anger fuelling her powers as she shocked each and every thug. Expending a bit more energy than necessary as she sought to release all her pent up anger and worry and confusion. It was over quick but her feelings had mostly been worked out on the now charred smoking bodies of their attackers.

"Do you know nothing of restraint Onee-sama? How about proportional retribution? All they did was threaten you and you think it's necessary to shock them until they're half-dead and burnt to a crisp?" Kuroko scolded, acid in her voice.

"They pulled a gun on us," Misaka retorted defensively

"A gun which had been disabled when you began shocking them to hell and back. You have absolutely no restraint whatsoever do you?'

"A lecture on restraint coming from you?"

Kuroko leveled her with a pained, angry glare before slowly replying "At least when I lose control, people don't get hurt."

Misaka's eyes widened as she realized what she had just said. Regret washed over her. Kuroko was right... once again her blind anger had hurt people. Time and time again she shocked people excessively.

Not only that but her anger had also caused her to be callous towards Kuroko, the very same person who she had promised not half an hour ago not to hurt, she had screwed up again.

'What am I saying?' Kuroko thought. She was confused, her mind was clouded in an anger she didn't feel. Her mouth spewed forth twisted, hurtful versions of her words, and those words were hurting her Onee-sama. 'Stop, stop, stop'. She repeated in a mantra to herself, trying to crush down the anger and betrayal and doubt that were building up inside her and lashing out at Onee-sama. Yet as much as she tried to beat them down they were held up by a single thought, what she was saying was true. Kuroko had an incredible amount of restraint and the few times she lost control she did little worse than hug or grope her Onee-sama, to which she responded with violence.

"Let's just go," she said out loud, resigning the unwinnable mental battle and walking off. Misaka followed her without a word, wondering where all of this had gone so wrong. They'd been best friends for several months and nothing had changed in that time. Even before Kuroko had forced herself into being her dorm mate she had always been "clingy", desperate for physical contact and affection and many times before Misaka had asked herself why she endured it but in all this time she had never asked why Kuroko endured their friendship. Though Misaka had to endure all the little inanities and perversions that Kuroko endlessly bombarded her with, Kuroko had to endure just as many, if not more, trials. It couldn't be easy to be the friend of a level five, especially one who caused so much trouble...

'What am I talking about? It's not me, it's her.' Misaka thought to herself, her (despair) slowly turning into anger 'Uihara doesn't face any problems, Saten-san doesn't. It isn't my fault for being suspicious of Kuroko's actions; anyone would be in my position. It's not my fault she gets burned when playing with fire. I don't hurt the innocent... but maybe I do hurt the guilty too much.' she took a second, recalling what Kuroko had said about restraint. 'she was right. All things considered, with her power she could do far worse than she does.' She shuddered for a moment remembering when, drugged by aphrodisiac, she had teleported her underwear right off her body. Since then, however, she hadn't exactly done anything too bad. 'Even Kuroko has more restraint than I do…"

Her anger soon turned into resolve, a resolve to exercise more restraint in the future, proportional retribution as Kuroko had called it.

"Hehe, looks like our lucky day. Our prey has come to us." said a voice startling Misaka out of her thoughts. As she looked up she saw 4 more thugs, blocking the alley that they were walking down.

She rolled her eyes, "not more of these guys." she said to herself.

"Now give up and we won't have to hurt you," the biggest one of them said drawing a knife to highlight his point. Then the girl in front disappeared, he felt a hand on his back and the next instant he found himself looking at the sky. Before his buddies could react however, they too found themselves on the ground as their muscles spasmed and gave out beneath them in a wave of pain.

It had been less than half of her normal output, at the range that most stun guns operated and aimed low to minimize risk to the heart. It was just a tad bit more powerful than her "chastise setting", yet it seemed to be enough to bring them down easily enough. She then walked over to Kuroko and the now pinned leader.

"Attacked twice in 5 minutes by people who seemed to know who we are and want something with us," Kuroko began

she saw where this was going, "I doubt it's a coincidence," she agreed.

"But they're obviously not Queen's forces, not a single one goes to our school."

"The Queen could have forces outside the faction at school,"

"But would she tolerate such barbaric thugs being associated with her?"

"You have a point there," Misaka said, glad that they were having a somewhat normal conversation, even if it was strictly business, "but what other explanation is there."

"In which case..." Kuroko turned to the still struggling thug, "Where is Queen?"

"I don't know who you're talking about," he yelled with hate and fury in his voice

"Are you sure about that," Misaka said, walking forward, "If you know who I am than you know what I can do to you if you're lying."

He gave a short smile before a stream of acid gushed from his mouth directly at her, catching Misaka off guard. Kuroko's insticts, however, were sharper, sensing danger the moment before she teleported in front of misaka, intercepting the caustic projectile. she immediately registered a sharp, biting pain and a hissing sound as the acid ate away at her shirt and the flesh underneath. Pushing the pain aside for a second she focused her mind just enough to teleport the substance off of her.

Misaka quickly zapped the leader disabling him from firing any more acidic sprays, in her rage forgetting for a second to restrain herself, shocking him with far more volts than the others. "Kuroko, are you okay?" She said after she had taken care of him.

"I'm fine" she said holding her side. She had managed to get it off before it ate away at the flesh too much but the pain was incredible.

"I'm... I'm sorry Kuroko... for everything," Misaka said. For the second time in as many days Kuroko had saved her, even when she had been furious at Misaka she still looked after her and was willing to put herself on the line to protect her.

The sincerity in her voice touched Kuroko, as she looked at her and remembered why she endured all the things she did for Misaka. She loved her, that was all that mattered. All the doubt and anger and despair that she had been feeling disappeared. How had she forgotten something so important as her never-ending love for her Onee-sama? It was a bit embarrassing really. She would do anything to make Onee-sama smile, even though her feelings would never be returned.

"You couldn't have known... don't worry about it." She responded.

Misaka was glad to be forgiven and to hear a trace of happiness back in Kuroko's voice, but she couldn't help but feel guilty, especially over how easily she had been forgiven. Kuroko always forgave her so easily, it made her wonder if she truly deserved it. "Are you sure you're ok?" she asked again.

"I'll be fine," Kuroko repeated, "so we should probably get back to business neh?"

"I'll take care of it, you treat that injury ok?"

"Ok Onee-sama, I'll leave it to you," she said as she got the supplies from her backpack.

As she did that Misaka walked over to one of the guys who she had stunned, "If you don't want to end up fried like you're boss than you'll tell me why you're here and where Queen is."

"I don't know who that is," he said in a frightened voice, "honest. We're just here for the bounty."

"What bounty?"

"Someone spread the word around the streets that if you capture the railgun you get 2 million yen, and told us you would be in district 17"

"Anything else?"

"No, honest, we don't know anything."

Misaka accepted his story and walked back to Kuroko, who had just finished bandaging herself up. "You heard that?"

"Yeah. what a mess... we need to find The Queen quickly."

"Are you ready to start searching again?" she asked, concerned.

"Yep," she confirmed, putting on her backpack again, "though we should probably stay off the main roads or we'll probably run into another ambush."

So they began their long and arduous search of the district. However even keeping to the back alleys they were attacked several times. The conflicts were easily resolved but still an annoyance, adding to the frustration of the failures of their searches. they had checked 5 buildings and each of those buildings had been a dead end, completely abandoned without a trace of The Queen. Now it was getting dark and they hadn't found a single clue.

Once the sun fell it became surprisingly dark. Normally Academy City was lit up by numerous streetlights and other lights, but these ones seemed to have been turned off, and she couldn't risk giving away their positioning by powering them up.

Power... that's it. "Kuroko, where's the district power control?"

Kuroko got the map from her pocket and found it for her, "should be over there... why do you ask?"

"The Queen is probably not going to let herself be in the dark so the power should be on, and if it's connected to the main grid I should be able to find out the location "

"Genius Onee-sama," Kuroko said impressed, "Shall we take the short route then?"

Misaka nodded. Kuroko took her hand and began a series of teleportations to take them to their destination. She had reserved doing this the whole time because she wished to conserve energy, but night was almost upon them and it would be best to get to their destination soon.

They soon got to their destination. Misaka approached the door, a little unsteady after all those teleportations. Easily overriding the electronics she opened the door and stepped into the building. It was small but had experienced very little wear over the years, all of the fully automated control systems still working perfectly. This made it quite easy to hack the systems and pull up the distribution map, which would tell her which regions power was being sent to. The only problem...

"It's all black... nowhere in the district is using power," she said confused, "a dead end."

"Not necessarily," Kuroko said thoughtfully, "in fact this narrows our search down a lot. If our assumption is correct in that the building is powered yet no buildings are using energy from the grid then it means that they are using energy off the grid. The only thing I can think of that does something like that is a hospital, which this district happens to have. We can check it out tomorrow."

"I suppose this is a pretty safe place to sleep." Misaka said walking back over to the door and closing and locking it, "I don't suppose you have a bed in that bag do you?"

"I am restricted by weight Onee-sama, if I took too much then I couldn't teleport the two of us, so no I did not." Kuroko replied, taking her seriously.

"It was a joke," she clarified, "but you do have more food right?"

"Plenty," she took out some more of Misaka's favorite as well as some water for some tea. Misaka heated up the kettle with her they were soon eating. after that, however, came the difficult part.

Kuroko blamed herself really, she hadn't expected things to turn out like they had when she had packed only one blanket and pillow. Of course she had planned to sleep with her Onee-sama every night, how could she pass up such an oppurtunity after all, so she had only packed one set. blankets took up a lot of room as well so it was a logical explanation. However after last night... Onee-sama was really uncomfortable sleeping with her it seemed. So she simply took them out and handed them to her, saying "you take these, I'll be fine."

However, like Kuroko, Misaka too thought she was the one to blame. She had zapped Kuroko pretty harshly, she probably wouldn't want to be anywhere near her after that. She pushed the blanket and pillow back to Kuroko, "no, you brought it, you use it"

"I brought it for you," _Well... us... but still_ *Push*

"After all you've done for me, I can't accept this."*Push*

"It was my pleasure,"*Push*

"Your pajamas cover less, it makes sense you should take it," *Push*

"We can trade for the night." *Push*

"I don't want to be a burden" *Push*

Kuroko sighed then stood up. Misaka felt guilty, thought it was all her fault. Kuroko knew that reassurances would be lost on her though so she decided to try another tactic which would work much better, even if it could turn out badly for herself. She walked around behind Misaka and sat down. Misaka turned to look at her, confused as to what she was doing when she felt Kuroko's arms shoot up her shirt as they began groping her breasts through her bra.

Misaka's face turned a bright crimson as she sat there, frozen for a moment by the unexpected assault. when she had regained her composure she turned around and pushed Kuroko away.

"Wh...WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!" she yelled at her, still blushing uncontrollably.

"Payment. I'd say we're even for all I've done after that."

Embarrassment at the groping, anger that Kuroko would do such a thing so thoughtlessly, shame at having enjoyed it, or relief that Kuroko was back to "normal". Seperate emotions fighting for dominance within Misaka. Surprisingly though it wasn't anger that won. She took a deep breath, still blushing slightly. "We... can share... I promise... that I won't hurt you again." she said slowly. She didn't want today to end as badly as it had begun.

"Onee-sama doesn't mind?" Kuroko asked, slightly surprised at the reaction

Misaka shook her head, "no... but grope me again and you're sleeping outside."

After that they changed and laid down on the floor. It was cold and hard, but not unbearably so. Misaka rested her head on the far edge of the pillow, facing away from Kuroko.

"Goodnight Kuroko."

"Goodnight Onee-sama."

* * *

Author's Note: Sorry for the delay, this chapter is quite long and took quite a bit of cleaning up. I'm still not totally satisfied with it so any suggestions for editing would be greatly appreciated and worked in as soon as possible.

Also, if you're curious, Misaka was dreaming of unicorns and washboards.


	3. Toaru Yowasa no Shōchō

Toaru Yowa-sa no Shōchō

A Certain Symbol of Weakness

* * *

Misaka was soon fast asleep, if a bit restless, the exhaustion from their tiresome day made even the cold metal floor seem comfortable to sleep upon. Despite that Kuroko found herself resisting sleep. She could still hear the voice echoing inside her head, The voice that shook her resolve and summoned in her an anger for the person whom she loved so deeply. The one that had haunted her all day, the one that even at the end took all her strength and love to resist and throw off.

She knew she could not remain awake forever, the past two days had taken a toll on her body already, she wouldn't be able to resist sleep's grasp for much longer, but she was afraid. afraid of that dark place and the voice of temptation that so easily influenced her.

It was around this time that she felt something moving behind her. As she turned for a look she felt an arm drape around her and pull her close as her Onee-sama unconsciously clung once again to her troubled bedfellow. Kuroko turned towards her but did not resist, not wanting to wake up her Onee-sama.

They soon found themselves entangled in each other in the same way as they were yesterday and Misaka stopped her restless tossing and turning, having once again found something comfortable and warm to hold on to for the night. Kuroko smiled. It was almost as if her Onee-sama had sensed, through their deep bond of love, that she was troubled, reaching out even in her sleep and holding her now to reassure her.

Yesterday too... she was the one that had gotten her out of that cursed place. She's always watching out for everyone. So many times she had saved Kuroko, even if it was just a kind word or a gentle hand.

Before Misaka she had always been alone. Outside of work and Konori-senpai she had no one to talk to or rely on but herself. But now it was different. She would always have Onee-sama and Onee-sama would always have her. They would be together forever.

Kuroko leaned down and kissed her lightly, "thank you," she whispered to her as she closed her eyes, confident that her Onee-sama would protect her, no matter what.

She soon opened her eyes to find herself back in the same endless void as last night, all was silent but she knew that the voice of honey and thorns was lurking in the ether. But tonight she was ready for it. She had the power of love behind her and the confidence that this love was eternal. She gathered her strength and shouted out in defiance to the darkness. "You were wrong. She might not love me, she might never love me, but she cares for me. That's all that matters. She'll always protect me and help me."

Her further retorts were cut off, however, as she felt a great pressure descend over her. It was suffocating and heavy, as if she were being held underwater, she could barely breathe, let alone shout. Then the voice spoke again, louder than before, each word driving deep within her, each syllable felt like it were pulling her further underwater. It instantly shattered every vestige of confidence and strength she had in herself**. "Help? Protect? You speak as if you were some helpless princess, always needing the strength of another."**

_Helpless? That isn't true._ She tried to speak up, to refute the voice but her words were swallowed up as the voice spoke again.

**"Are you nothing but a weakling? In constant need of the protection of another? Are you so worthless as to rely on her for everything?"**

_Not weak. Don't listen to it, trust in yourself._ She tried hard to do it, but resisting was useless, the voice had her in its web and had no intention of letting her escape.

**"If you aren't weak than fight. Prove to those who think you are beneath them that you are strong. Prove that you don't need her, that you don't need anyone. Fight and show your strength."**

Fight... I can do that. Her resistance had now totally crumbled and she lapped up the honey that the voice poured forth. "I'm not weak, I'll prove it."

Misaka woke up to an odd sense of deja vu. She opened her eyes to the same sight that had caused her so much trouble yesterday, the see-through fabric of Kuroko's provocative negligee. She blushed deeply realizing she was in the same position as yesterday, her head nestled snuggly on Kuroko's flat but soft chest... She froze, hesitant to make any action, lest she repeat the mistake of yesterday.

As she paused to calm down and return to her senses she realized something. She felt Kuroko squirming in her grasp, her breathing fast and shallow. Misaka looked up at her face. Her eyes were closed tightly and her face was contorted in a mixture of pain and fear, like she was having a nightmare.

Concerned now, Misaka quickly disentangled her arms and began shaking Kuroko. "Hey, wake up. Are you ok?"

Suddenly her eyes shot, they looked around searching for something as her breath quickened and deepened, as if she had just resurfaced from the pool. Their eyes met. "Kuroko? are you ok, it looked like you were having a bad dream."

Kuroko spun around quickly, turning away from her. "I'm fine," she said defensively

Misaka sat up. "You sure? You don't look fine. What's up? you can tell me. it's ok." She put her hand on her shoulder reassuringly, "you looked terrified."

She shrugged the hand off. She couldn't let her Onee-sama see her like this, see her in a moment of weakness. 'I need to be strong; I can't rely on Misaka to protect me. I am plenty capable of protecting myself'. "I'm not scared, I'm fine," she said again, a bit of anger rising as she mistook the gentle concern in Misaka's voice for condescending pity.

"Something is seriously wrong with her," Misaka thought. "Yesterday too. Maybe it's my fault, maybe it's this whole stupid place. She's plunged herself into such a high stress situation, all for me..."

"Listen Kuroko," she began her voice full of concern, "thank you very much for coming. It means a lot to me that you would put yourself in danger to try and help me. But you don't have to. If you're not feeling well then you should go, I'll be fine on my own."

It was possibly the worst thing she could have said however. "You think I can't handle it?" all of Misaka's care and concern was lost on her; instead she became angry at Misaka's underestimation of her. She was strong, she wasn't about to give up just because Misaka thought she couldn't handle it. "I'll be just fine. I'm not some weakling that you need to look out for and I'm not going to run away just because you think you can handle this by yourself. We all saw how that worked out for you before."

Misaka was taken aback, by the words themselves and the sheer resentment and anger behind them. Why was Kuroko saying this? What was wrong with her?

Kuroko stood up. "Now if you're done trying to convince me to run, it's already morning and the sooner we leave the sooner we can get this job done."

"I wasn't trying to convince you to run, I was simply telling you that you don't need to force yourself to stay." Misaka said again, Kuroko's behavior and disdain for her concern moving her to annoyance. Her annoyance was further enflamed when Kuroko ignored this and simply began changing. Angrily she got up and did the same. No point in talking to someone who doesn't listen.

Silently they packed everything up, and ate a small breakfast, each fuming, angry at the other. Then they left, heading towards the hospital that they had decided was the hiding place of The Queen. Surprisingly they weren't attacked as they had been the other day. Everything was quiet and soon they reached the hospital, more specifically, around 50 meters from it, scoping it out from a distance.

The building was big, though not nearly as big as the hospitals in the main parts of the city. It was 7 stories tall but not very spacious going along with the general theme of academy cities, up-not-out, build policy. It seemed to still be in good repair, very few of the windows were broken and the white paint covering the outside was not worn completely away like it had been on most every other building. The hospital itself wasn't major enough to have anything but a small parking garage next to it that didn't even link to the hospital and was completely empty. The only visible entrance was the large front door.

There was also another interesting feature, the door had a guard. A middle-school girl in a Tokiwadai outfit. While obviously not The Queen herself she was likely in her faction at school. It was a hopeful sign; this building was likely the right place if she was placing more than delinquents on guard.

They would need to be careful however, one wrong move and things could turn out very badly. Low level thugs were one thing but who knows how many people she had with her, and they were all at least level 3.

"We should try and sneak..." Misaka stopped when she turned to her companion only to see nothing but air.

Kuroko teleported behind the lookout, immediately putting her in a restraining hold and covering her mouth with her hand. "I need you to answer my questions. Where is the Queen?" She asked before uncovering her mouth.

The girl scoffed in return struggling in the hold, "Do you think I'd tell you? and even if you knew what would you do about it? You're nothing but a weak little insect unfit to be in the presence of..."

Weak... weak? Weak! Something inside Kuroko snapped as she heard that word. Before the girl could finish her sentence she teleported her several meters into the air. then entered the hospital.

There were more guards waiting inside, all of them from their school. All restraint forgotten, Kuroko moved in a flurry throughout the hospital, taking out ESPer after ESPer in seconds flat with a series of teleportations, kicks, and throws, all executed in such a manner to defeat her opponents as quickly as possible, with little regard to their safety. After all, she wasn't here to apprehend these people, she was here to get rid of them. That she did quite efficiently as well, they were being taken out faster than they could react, those few that managed to launch some sort of attack found it missing as their target appeared in a completely different location.[1]

It was hard and tiring but Kuroko was too consumed by anger to notice how much energy she was burning. She was in an almost berserk rage as she dealt one by one with all those who dared to call her weak. The words of the voice echoed in her head like a battle drum, urging her on

She made her way upwards, floor by floor, quickly weaving her way through the various rooms and floors until she reached the top. This floor seemed to be the managerial department. Groups of cubicle and several offices lay around the room for the abandoned number crunching staff of this hospital. It was a smaller floor than the rest but the cubicles would make it hard to search, so Kuroko decided not to do so and simply go to what looked to be the biggest, nicest office there was, helpfully labeled "Dean of Medicine: Iyasu Karada."

She threw the door open, ready to take out the queen and be done with this whole mess. However, when she entered the room she saw that The Queen was not there, only another girl in a Tokiwadai uniform sitting in a comfortable chair behind the desk looking startled by the noise of the door.

When the girl saw Kuroko she quickly activated her power, erecting a large barrier of force between them. It could weather even large explosions, so she should be safe. Then she began moving it forward, trying to force the intruder back.

Unfortunately for her, Kuroko didn't need to knock it down, she simply teleported in front of her and quickly restrained her like she had down before. "I'm going to ask this one more time so you had better answer me... where is The Queen."

"I...I can't tell you," she said, terrified of this very angry sounding girl who had forced her way up her but resolute in her desire to serve and protect her idol.

On another day Kuroko might have admired this resolve and loyalty, but right now she was not in the mood. She teleported them up to the roof, close enough to the edge that a simple push would send her over. "You sure you can't tell me?" She asked threateningly. Not a trace of mercy, compassion, or restraint was present in her voice or intentions.

Looking down for a brief moment to see the 70 foot fall awaiting her, the girl almost wet herself from the sheer terror. "Sh...She's at the old military complex, near the switchyard on the other end of the district. We're just here as a decoy, so please don't hurt me." she begged, crying.

"That's better." Kuroko said letting her go. The girl ran over to the other end of the roof, covering herself in a force field as she sobbed and cowered.

After seeing that Kuroko had gone Misaka's eyes shot towards the hospital. Kuroko was indeed there, apparently interrogating the lookout. That's when things started going wrong. Suddenly Kuroko had teleported the lookout up in the air, far higher than usual, then she had rushed into the building. Misaka ran towards the hospital herself. The lookout was unconscious, the fall had been quite hard but it probably didn't cause any broken bones. She didn't have time to check on all the people though. She had to stop Kuroko before she did anything stupid.

"And she lectures me about rushing in," Misaka thought angrily as she rushed in. It seemed as though she was too late to stop her though. Everywhere she went she saw the carnage left behind. Kuroko had been utterly vicious; people were laying all about, either unconscious or hurt. Some people had Kuroko's little needles sticking out of their skin and they were desperately trying to pull them out.

The sight of it made Misaka sick to her stomach. There was no way Kuroko could have done this... right? Not the annoying little roommate that was always laughing and smiling and badgering her Onee-sama. It wasn't conceivable that her best friend had wrecked all this chaos but she knew it was true. "Why Kuroko, what happened to you..." she said quietly to herself.

She finally met up with the culprit on the top floor, stumbling down the stairs from the roof like a drunkard, holding her head. Her disbelief and annoyance all at once turned to anger and she was about to launch a tirade at Kuroko, demanding to know her reason for all of this when she spouted out.

"The Queen... old military complex... near switchyard... other side of the district." With that last word Kuroko fainted, the energy she had consumed from all those teleportations too much for her when coupled with her already sleep deprived body.

Misaka caught her before she fell. She was pissed off but she could wait to tell Kuroko off for a later time. In fact this was probably for the best. Now she could simply drop her off somewhere safe and finish this whole mess soon. That way no more people would get hurt... other than The Queen for launching her on this wild goose chase in the first place.

So she hoisted the unconscious Kuroko onto her back and made her way back down, using the elevator this time as she no longer needed to search for anyone on the way up. She reached the ground floor and left the building. Walking towards the other side of the district, keeping an eye out for any safe places to leave Kuroko, she quickly found one in a relatively innocuous building that had an electronic lock on the door, still functional. She went inside and settled Kuroko into a corner. "I'll be back and then we'll have a talk ok." she said to her unconscious friend before leaving and locking the door behind her.

* * *

[1]Imagine the Nightcrawler scene at the beginning of X-Men 2 only a cute middle school girl instead of a blue skinned mutant with a tail.

* * *

Author's Note: I'm happy I could get this chapter out quite a bit faster than the other one but I feel, once again, unsatisfied by it. I'm sorry for using my loyal readers as beta testers but once again I ask for any feedback, advice, etc… that you can lend to make this better.

With that out of the way I'd like to address an issue that some of you reading may disagree with. That is Kuroko's single handed devastation of several level 3's and a couple level 4's. This may seem unrealistic given that Kuroko herself is only level 4 but I disagree with that assessment. To me Kuroko is completely underestimated. She is one of the deadliest characters in that universe simply because of one thing, efficiency.

To put it into numbers let us look at Misaka's. Her Railgun has a maximum range of 50 meters and capable of going 1080 meters per second. That means that, disregarding the windup where she flips the coin in the air, it would take .04 seconds to reach its target. Her lightning is much faster, reaching a target the same distance away in just over 8 microseconds. However, against the same target , Kuroko's attack would reach it instantaneously. Not only that but, because it ignores any other material, it is impossible to block and with the displacement effect she could kill a person using just about anything, decapitating a person using a piece of paper, severing the medulla using a playing card, utterly destroying someone's brain with a simple tin can. Even Accelerator would be dead in an instant. However her restraint keeps her from seriously injuring anyone to the level that she could. However if her restraint slipped a little bit I don't think that the curb-stomp I talked about in this chapter would be unrealistic. I plan to play with this idea a little more as the story progresses so I'll tell you right now that I am a person who plans to use Kuroko's abilities to the fullest, not simply underestimate her like everyone else does.


	4. Toaru Hajime no Owari

Toaru Hajime no Owari

A Certain End of the Beginning

* * *

Once again she found herself in this hellhole. But this time she couldn't move, she couldn't talk, she could do nothing but look out at the endless darkness and listen as the voice said 3 simple words to her.** "You are mine."**

Then she watched as her eyes opened and felt as her body moved. But she had no control, as if she was a prisoner in her own body.

* * *

Misaka made her way towards the switchyard at a quick but measured pace. She passed a few gangs of delinquents but they quickly ran away from the angry looking middle school girl with lightning shooting out of her randomly.

Winding her way through the buildings she began to get a bit lost. She had seen the switchyard on the map but had not paid special attention to it, so it was difficult to find. However her persistence soon paid off as she reached it. After that had been accomplished she began looking around, feeling for electrical currents in the air that would signal the place she was looking for.

As she was searching she grew more and more worried for the friend she had left behind. She had been acting so strangely, doing things that the Kuroko that Misaka knew and cared for would never do. She had thought that everything was cleared up yesterday, but it seemed that it only got worse.

She missed her, missed her happy smile, her playful antics, missed the face full of love and affection, not the one full of anger and hate. She missed the lectures, the displays of affection, all the little things that had always annoyed her... now that Kuroko was being like this she realized that there was a hole in her heart. She wasn't sure if this was just a burst of odd behavior or if Kuroko was changing. What if Kuroko really did hate her? What would she do if she lost Kuroko forever?

She was so busy thinking that she almost missed it. It was barely noticeable, a small current running beneath her feet. When she felt it she quickly pushed all those thoughts to the side, "that can wait until I've defeated The Queen." She followed the electricity and soon came across a door built into the side of the switchyard, heavy steel with a DO NOT ENTER sign and a complex electronic lock. However, to Misaka, military security was hardly harder to break than cheap civilian security; she would be through it in a second. However, when she touched the control panel she felt that it was already unlocked, so she simply opened the door and went on through, finding the lack of even a simple obstacle like that somewhat… disappointing considering how big and secure the door had seemed.

She found herself in a long hallway. The walls and floors were the same concrete as the outside, as if it had been carved directly out of the building. At the end of the hallway were a set of sturdy metal-grate stairs, leading downwards. She descended, the stairs went down and down, it was at least 4 stories below before they ended in a door. This one, too, seemed to be unlocked.

"Guess she had to get down here through here too..." she said to herself as she opened the door.

"Ahh, it seems you've finally arrived Mikoto," said a familiar voice, The Queen's voice, coming out of an intercom system mounted in top corner of the hallway, "It took you long enough, but I shouldn't have expected much coming from you. Now how about you stop wasting my time and go die in a gutter somewhere. Or, alternatively, you could come and find me so I can kill you myself."

Misaka was tempted to fry the speaker immediately. She hated The Queen's voice. It was a voice of honey and thorns, one that always held that haughty, condescending tone. But she could use it to find her. She reached up and touched the intercom, following the input signal back to the source. In under a second she had located it and then promptly proceeded to overload the circuit, silencing it once and for all.

It was a trap, of course it was, but she had no choice but to trip it and then fight her way out. After all, this was the first lead she had to The Queen's location. And if it was a trap then it was even more likely that she would be here. She would doubtlessly want to gloat over Misaka's demise. Of course maybe that was a little too cliché, even for the Queen.

She walked along the empty hallways. The walls, ceiling and floor were all made of metal so each footstep echoed throughout the corridors. "Guess that eliminates any possibility of getting a jump on her. But at least it means that her lackeys can't get a jump on me." She thought.

She wandered throughout the maze of empty corridors and closed doors, past darkened windows, searching for the location of the source of the signal to the intercom. Finally she came across a door. She sensed the signal coming from the other side, so she readied herself before pushing open the heavy door and stepping into the room.

At the far end of the room in a solid glass security booth sat The Queen in a luxurious chair, looking quite pleased with herself. "Finally, you made it, I'm so happy. Now I can watch you suffer before you die." She said, with a contented smile upon her face. Misaka heard the door shut behind her.

Of course, an ambush, typical. She turned to look at her ambusher only to receive a hard kick in the stomach. As she stumbled backwards however she caught a glimpse and her heart nearly stopped.

"K...Kuroko?" She asked with disbelief. She looked like Kuroko, but her eyes were cold, no spark of her vibrant personality left in them. Her face was flat, blank as a slate. She held herself in a ready stance, preparing for another attack. "No it can't be. This must be a trick."

"Nope," The Queen answered amusement in her voice, "that's really your best friend and she's really trying to kill you. That is unless you kill her first." She laughed, "After being hurt and abandoned by her friend and idol it was a simple matter of making her hate you. That's my power, Mental Out. Complete control over a person's emotions and memories, and when you control those you control the person."

As she spoke Kuroko launched several more attacks against her. They were slow enough the Misaka could dodge most of them, but Kuroko had far more martial training than Misaka had, when she did land a hit it hurt a lot. Misaka knew that she needed to do something about it but whenever she saw her face she found she just couldn't bring herself to hurt her best friend even more.

"You want to know the best part? I didn't even do much, just a little nudge. All that pain and anguish was already there, and you are the cause of all of it. I didn't poison her against you, you did. So I guess I should be thanking you. Thank you Misaka for being so horrible to the people who care about you."

A bolt of lightning crashed against the glass of the security booth but it didn't even make a mark on the glass. She began to shoot a more concentrated bolt, hoping to melt the glass and with it the smug look on that damn Queen's face, but before she could Kuroko took the moment of vulnerability to kick her once again in the stomach.

"Dammit, I can't make a move with her here. I guess I'll just have to take care of her first." she turned to face her opponent. "Now if I just use the power that I used to take out those delinquents." But therein lay the twofold problem. The first part being that Kuroko had built up quite the resistance to electricity, even twice that power was only considered by Kuroko to be her "love whip". But she couldn't just go higher, what if she went too high and seriously hurt her? She couldn't experiment with it or she'd end up hurting her several times.

The Queen was right. She had hurt Kuroko so much in the past, physically and mentally, and Kuroko just took it all in stride simply for the chance to be close her. She hadn't imagined just how much of an impact her actions had on the poor girl.

She didn't want Queen to win. She didn't want to get hurt. She didn't want to hurt Kuroko. She didn't want to do any of this anymore. All she wanted right now was her Kuroko back with her. All she wanted was to see that smile and hear that voice again.

She lunged forward and wrapped her arms tightly around Kuroko, drawing her in and holding her close.

"I'm sorry Kuroko,"a tear ran down her cheek, "it's all my fault. I'm so sorry." She said, her feelings poured forth in these words, and for once she simply let her heart speak for her as she whispered, "I love you Kuroko, please just come back to me." Then she leaned in and took her lips with her own, kissing her with all her heart "Nothing else matters, I just want you back right now." she thought. All the confused feelings that had been haunting her for so long evaporated along with every ounce of uncertainty that had gone with them. All the emotions that the chaos of the situation had stirred settled in on love and happiness [1].

For a second nothing happened, then Kuroko's eyes, dead to the world a moment ago widened in surprise. The next second they closed again as she sank into the kiss, returning it with all her heart soaking up the love that poured forth from her and returning it with her own. It continued for what felt like an eternity but still it ended far too soon.

"Onee-sama?" Kuroko, confused, quietly asked as they pulled apart

"Aww... how touching..." The Queen mocked, "But such a pathetic display won't do you any good. Kuroko fini..." her order was cut off as a pair of tan shorts suddenly appeared in front of her, or more specifically, right in the walls of the security booth, displacing part of it and leaving only a thin layer of fabric where only an instant ago had been three inches of solid glass.

"Go to hell," Kuroko said in response. Having run out of needles long ago and knowing they wouldn't work for the trick she had in mind anyway, she resorted to using the only appropriate ammunition available. The very shorts she constantly cursed Misaka for wearing had finally gotten a use. However, that last action was too much for the girl, already so exhausted by all that had happened. She felt herself go limp as her vision blurred and blackened.

When Misaka realized what exactly she had done, Kuroko had already slipped into unconsciousness. So she set her down gently before standing up. Normally she would have been extremely embarrassed by such an action, but right now the opportunity it presented was well worth the unfortunate side effect. By this time The Queen had figured out what was going on as well, and she looked very worried about it. She looked around for a way out, but there would be no escape.

Through the hole that the fabric had shunted out of the glass she shot a lightning bolt: large, powerful, and as painful as she could possibly make it without it killing her target. Misaka was not a cruel person but what The Queen had done had been unforgivable, she deserved to suffer.

The Queen cried out in pain as the lightning struck her, her muscles failing her and her nerves on fire, sending random confused signals to her brain. A burn crept like a spiders web over her skin from her shoulder where the lightning bolt impacted, branding her with the vengeance of The Railgun.

She kept the charge going for around half a second before ceasing the flow of electricity. The Queen fell off her chair as her body failed her. Misaka walked around to the door. It was still locked obviously, manual and electronically. Oh well, she had time now. She conjured a powerful charge and shot it at the door, maintaining a steady flow of high voltage. Quickly the glass heated up, getting redder and redder as the heat built. It soon began to melt, the now molten glass sliding down the door and leaving a gaping hole.

Misaka waited for a while to let the glass cool down before she stuck her arm through the door and disengaged the manual lock. Then with a simple touch to the keypad the electronic lock was also disengaged, leaving the door to her goal wide open.

She walked in, over to the still disabled body of her opponent, kneeling down and ripping the token she had been tasked with recovering from around The Queen's neck.

"Don't you ever mess with my friends again," she warned to the unconscious girl before leaving the security booth. She walked over to Kuroko bending down and hooked an arm under her knees, her other arm supporting her head, picking her up in a bridal carry. Kuroko was light as a feather in her arm, peacefully sleeping in her arms, a ghost of a smile on her face as she completely relaxed in Misaka's arms.

"You're a pest you know that," Misaka said to her, "ever since we met you've been causing me troubles. When you're not stalking me you're scolding me, when you're not scolding me you're clinging to me like a lovesick puppy. You're possessive and you get jealous so easily. You treat me like a child who needs to be told what to do. You frequently call me immature, reckless, and irresponsible when you're hardly better. You have no shame or respect for personal space."

Misaka finished climbing up the stairs and nudged the door open, stepping out into the fresh air and afternoon sunlight. She began walking towards the nearest exit point of the district. Luckily it happened to be quite close by so she would be there soon.

"But above all you're the single most stubborn and persistent person I have ever met. You completely devote yourself to whatever you set your sights on and never give up until you have it, even if what you devote yourself doesn't deserve that kind of effort. You don't know the meaning of the words 'give up'." She sighed in exasperation, "it's so annoying."

But as she walked on she smiled, and thought to herself, "but what I said was true… you really are important to me, despite your flaws." And as if she could hear Misaka's very thoughts, Kuroko's smile widened a tiny fraction as she shifted in her arms, facing and clinging to her.

They soon reached the road leading out of the abandoned district, connecting to the next one over. Standing there was the same tall man in a black suit that she had dealt with at the beginning, who had explained the rules and conditions of the contest. He wore no personal identification and he had not told her his name, for all the world nothing but a generic G-man.

"Please present the item you were tasked with acquiring," he said flatly, holding out his hand. Misaka briefly shifted her hold on Kuroko to retrieve the token from her pocket and deposited it in his opened palm. He took out a scanner from his pocket, running the light over the surface of it. It beeped and flashed a green light in validation of the objects authenticity.

"Very well. Congratulations, you are free to leave. You may keep your token if you wish, we have no need of it. Would you like me to call an ambulance for your friend?"

"No thank you, I'll just get a cab." Misaka responded politely before walking off.

* * *

Once she was out of earshot the agent took a cell phone out of his pocket and made a call. "It seems that Misaka Mikoto was victorious sir, as you predicted."

"A bit disappointing but I suppose it is for the best," the voice at the other end of the line said, "She has considerable potential but getting her to cooperate with us would have been quite difficult. You know what you need to do now, make sure everything goes smoothly, I'm counting on you."

"Yes sir, I shall begin immediately." The agent responded as the line went dead. He closed the phone, putting it in his pocket before commencing his given task.

Hanging up on his loyal subordinate the man heaved a brief sigh. "It isn't like she won't become involved anyway. " he walked over to a row of flowers, sitting beautifully in porcelain pots, "it seems a bit cruel I suppose, but sometimes even the most beautiful of roses must be cut in order for the bush to flourish." He said as he calmly began pouring water into the pots.

* * *

"Damn that Misaka," Said the dethroned Queen. She had recently regained consciousness but was still in pain and unable to move her legs. "She will pay for this, she will pay. I will get revenge on her if it is the last thing I do."

"Would you care for some help with that endeavor?" A voice said from the shadows of the room. The Queen quickly turned, glaring at the newcomer. Then she stopped to consider it. She had suspicions about this… but she could always use some more unwitting pawns, and her ability would make sure that they stayed exactly that. So she looked up at the person, "What kind of help?"

* * *

Author's note: Ok, chapter four. I'm really excited about this and I'm having a lot of fun. I'd like to thank all of my readers and assure you all that this really is just the beginning and there is far more to come. The intrigue and romance has just begun to form so be sure you stick around and read.

I wanted to get this out quickly to wrap up this 1st arc up, I'll try hard to write the next chapter quickly (it is a sort of epilogue or finisher to this arc so it would be good to get it out within a short time of the others) but after that the next update may take a while, as I'd like to write a couple chapters of the next arc ("The Jericho Arc" I call it) before updating again.

* * *

[1] Then rainbows and Care Bears descended from the skies, and with the power of love and bubbles, turned all those evil people good so that Pyroland was once again a joyous and wonderful place and everyone lived happily ever after.


	5. Toaru Ibento no Yoha

Toaru Ibento no Yoha

A Certain Aftermath of the Events

* * *

It was late in the evening before Misaka and Kuroko got back to their dorms. They managed to make it several minutes before curfew too, which was lucky as the older girl did not want to have to explain to the dorm mistress why she was carrying her currently unconscious roommate. Glad to have avoided any confrontation, Misaka entered their room and carefully went over and gently laid Kuroko on her bed, tucking her in like a caring mother.

She turned off the light then went over to her own bed sitting hard on it and falling backwards. She sighed deeply as her mind began to wander. Seemingly of their own accord, her fingers wandered up to her lips, touching them gingerly. 'I kissed Kuroko today,' she thought to herself, not quite sure what to think about it. She was tempted to believe that it hadn't even happened, that it was some crazy imagining conjured up in a moment of insanity and stress. But whenever she thought about it, there came the ghost of the feeling of Kuroko's lips pressed against hers. It was too vivid to be fake, too real to be imagined.

Did she even want it to be fake? She had been so sure of her actions at the time but now… she was afraid, and she didn't even know what it was she was afraid of. It was so damn frustrating. Even with all the emotions roiling about inside her she couldn't choose which one of them she was feeling, or supposed to feel.

"When you're stumped just move through the problem one question at a time." Kuroko had said a while ago. She had been talking about a Judgment case with Uiharu that had been confusing them for a while. It had helped then so maybe it would help her now. She took a deep breath to calm herself and began her internal interrogation.

'Do I regret what happened? No. I'm sure of that one. It's a little embarrassing but I don't regret it in the slightest.'

'Do I really love Kuroko?' That was a bit harder to answer. Misaka had never been in love before. She had heard tales of the magical, fantastic feeling that made everything wonderful, sugar and rainbows. She had seen couples walking by, holding hands, staring into each other's eyes, and just enjoying being together. She had had far too much personal experience with Kuroko's form of love as well.

She felt none of that. Her insides twisted up and hurt, her head was a chaotic mess of emotions. It was not sugar and rainbows. Yes she enjoyed Kuroko's company, but she always had, just like she had always enjoyed the company of her other friends. And as for feeling Kuroko's version… she had no desire to hold hands, hug, kiss... or do any of those other things that Kuroko did that made Misaka blush just thinking about them. She would be far too embarrassed to just go up and kiss Kuroko randomly. She wasn't anywhere near that bold.

And yet… she couldn't just say that she didn't love her. She felt something, something she couldn't name, an emotion that stirred every time she thought of Kuroko's smile or the feeling of her soft lips.

'Do I love Kuroko?' She settled upon an open ended 'Maybe'.

'Do I want anything more than what we have now? Do I want us to become more than friends?' That was probably the toughest question, yet probably the most pressing. She rolled that question around in her head, unsure quite what to make of it. 'Well, I…' her thoughts were disturbed by some rustling sounds. She sat up, looking over to the other bed where the noises were coming from. Kuroko was still asleep but she tossed and turned restlessly, muttering something Misaka could not understand.

'Is she having another nightmare?' Misaka wondered concerned. She stood up and walked over to her bed. She was curled up in a ball, as if cowering in a corner. Her face had a similar expression to the one it had held yesterday, if not quite so severe.

Misaka placed a hand on her shoulder, planning on waking her up. But the instant her hand touched Kuroko's shoulder the restless motions stopped, her tensed muscles slowly relaxed, completely entrusting herself to her loved one's care, knowing the electro-master would protect her, even in her dreams. With this new found feeling of security, the fear on her face lessened considerably. "Onee-sama," the younger girl muttered drowsily, still asleep, her nightmare apparently dissipated with a simple touch.

Misaka smiled as Kuroko's face settled on a much more peaceful expression, her breathing evening out. Satisfied that the younger girl was ok now, she stood up to go back to her own bed.

"No," the sleeping girl begged, "Don't…" the electro-master looked back at her roommate. Her face, which had been so peaceful a moment ago, was now arranged in a mosaic of worry, desperation, loneliness, and fear. Though her eyes still shut tight in sleep her arm was stretched out, as if searching for the touch that had disappeared.

Misaka took the outstretched hand in her own. "Don't worry, I'm still here… I won't go anywhere," She said, sounding like she was consoling a child, which she technically was. She sat in front of the bed, still holding the other girl's hand. Carefully Misaka placed her other hand on the sleeping girl's shoulder, where it had been before. She felt once again as Kuroko relaxed under her touch but her face still bore signs of worry, as if afraid she would be abandoned once again.

"It's alright, I'm here for you. I'll always be here for you," she coaxed, upset by Kuroko's worry and trying to make her feel better. Slowly responding to Misaka's gentle reassurances, her expression once again settled into a more peaceful look. She gave a sigh of relief before gazing at Kuroko's sleeping face again, "you're much prettier when you're happy," she remarked. Receiving no response she leaned against the bed, making herself more comfortable as her mind wandered back to the unanswered question. 'Do I want us to become more than friends?'

She looked to the person in question then settled on her answer, "it doesn't matter," the older girl said quietly, "It doesn't matter whether you call us friends or something more. No matter the title I'll always be here for you. Isn't that the important thing?" Kuroko, naturally, didn't respond, but Misaka felt proud, proud and confident in whatever the new day may have in store for her, for them. So what if she didn't have all the answers, she had all the time in the world to figure them out, until then she would just take things one day at a time, answer problems as they arose and enjoy the present. She soon fell asleep with a smile on her face.

* * *

The next morning, as the sun shone through the window, the two girls started to stir. Misaka picked her head up from on top of Kuroko's stomach where it had sprawled itself sometime last night, though she wasn't awake enough to be embarrassed about that yet. She was barely awake enough to comprehend that Kuroko had just now called to her.

"Onee-sama," she asked, her voice still sounding weary and confused, "what are you doing over here?"

It took a second for Misaka to process the question, when it did she recoiled a little bit as she remembered what had happened last night and a slight blush came across the electro-master's cheeks. "Well… you were having a nightmare so I kind of came over here to try and comfort you… I guess I fell asleep myself."

"Comfort…" the other girl repeated before replying, "Thank you very much for your concern. Though I wouldn't have expected this method from you." She said looking downwards.

Misaka followed her gaze. They were still holding hands but sometime in the night Kuroko had shifted onto her back and the hand that had been on her shoulder was now resting across her chest, directly on top of two very small bumps. The blush on her face grew several shades brighter as she hastily withdrew her arm. This just made things worse however, the movement of her arm across her sensitive areas eliciting a small squeak from Kuroko. "Not so rough Onee-sama." She complained.

Misaka turned around, the redness of her face bright beyond description. Several minutes passed as Misaka grew very interested in the opposing wall, studying it intently in silence. Kuroko almost giggled at the sight, almost, but she too remained quiet, waiting till her Onee-sama was ready as well.

After another couple of minutes Misaka finally spoke up. "How are you feeling?"

"Not so good. My head hurts and I can't remember much of anything that's happened in the past couple days." She said rubbing the back of her head to emphasize this.

"You… forgot… everything?" Misaka asked, turning around to face her, concern and curiosity on her face. 'does that mean she forgot about the…' Her unasked question was answered before she could complete it when Kuroko grabbed her collar, pulling her in and kissing her passionately. Misaka was surprised but… it felt so nice. She closed her eyes and returned it a little awkwardly.

They pulled away after several more seconds. Kuroko smiled up at her, "I wouldn't say everything… some things are unforgettable," she purred seductively into her ear.

Misaka's face lit up again with a deep red blush as she drew away. But the other girl's arms wrapped around her, hauling her up onto the bed then pinning the blushing girl beneath her.

"You know you're really cute when you're embarrassed," Kuroko cooed, leaning down close enough that Misaka could feel each hot breath against her ear.

"But you don't need to be," the younger girl continued running a hand slowly over Misaka's collarbone and down her side while the other gently cupped her face, the thumb running through her hair and brushing her temple soothingly, "after all, I love you. And now that you love me, there's nothing holding us back." With that Kuroko planted a hot kiss on her cheek, then another and another, trailing slowly downwards to her neck.

Misaka couldn't move, her body just wouldn't listen to her, too focused on this new and pleasant attention to want to get rid of it. It was all happening so fast, too fast. She wanted to say stop but her throat dried up and couldn't form the words properly. Her body didn't want to resist and she was too confused to force it. So she simply shut her eyes tight and waited.

Then the caresses stopped, her hands halted their progress and her lips removed themselves from her skin. "I understand," she heard Kuroko say, her voice a mix of dejected and ashamed, "I'm sorry Onee-sama." She sat up and turned away from the older. "I guess I just got a little excited. This all seems like a dream and… I'm a bit afraid it is one. I'm a bit afraid that any minute now I'm going to wake up and none of this will have happened and you won't feel this way anymore, you'll never feel this way…" a few tears welled up in her eyes as her voice became slightly shaky.

Her body finally back under her control, Misaka sat up and, leaning forward, hugged Kuroko. "But it isn't a dream. It's real. And that means that there is no need to rush. We can take our time Kuroko, do this at our own pace." Kuroko turned to look at her and Misaka gently wiped the tears from her eyes, "I'm not going to disappear, nor am I going to suddenly stop loving you." She said, her emotions becoming much easier to express when she was consoling someone.

Kuroko hugged her back, "I love you Onee-sama."

"I…" Misaka hesitated, then took a deep breath, "I love you too Kuroko."

* * *

Author's note: There we are, my shortest chapter yet: A nice mix of romance, drama, and a hint of comedy. On a side note, I love tsunderes. They are great to write romance with. Oh and don't worry all my action-loving readers, once I get into The Jericho Arc there will be a whole buttload of action to go along with these lovebirds' blossoming relationship, plus several interesting plotpoints you don't want to miss.


	6. Toaru Kādo no Hanten

Toaru Kādo no Hanten

A Certain Flipping of the Cards

* * *

Kuroko wandered the streets of Section 177. Her green Judgment insignia pinned to her sleeve and her needle bands on and reloaded. Her posture was straight, confident and professional. Her eyes darted back and forth as she wandered around on patrol, keeping an eye and ear out for any goings on. It was a welcome distraction from the confusion of the morning.

_You shouldn't be going to work today. You still haven't fully recovered. _

"I know that but I can't just miss work, I've already been gone for three days."

_While I admit it would be a little suspicious, your health is a little more important than your job performance._

"I just don't want Uiharu to worry is all."

_If she worries she'll start asking questions, and your cover story of leaving the city to visit family wouldn't exactly cover why you look like hell would it._

"I'm feeling a lot better though, finally having a good night's sleep never felt so good." And it is all thanks to Onee-sama, her warm and loving presence. Kuroko felt so damn giddy. Earlier Uiharu noticed she had seemed happy, chalking it off to enjoying her little trip, but she didn't know the half of it. It took all of Kuroko's control not to giggle and frolic in a field of flowers like a schoolgirl whose first crush ended up liking them back.

_That's exactly what you are you idiot._

"Who asked you?"

Uiharu had asked for details about her trip but she was saved from having to come up with a story on the spot by Konori-senpai's arrival and her somewhat forceful reminder to, now that she was back, get on with her work already. She had been expecting a backlog of paperwork but her workmate had been diligent, working hard to take care of both of their work while she was gone. She was touched by the gesture, thanking her and promising to take her out for ice cream sometime tomorrow.

"Shirai-san," a voice said into her ear.

Speak of the devil, "Hai Uiharu?"

"We have a report of a mugging near your area, a whole gang it seems like. Can you handle it on your own or do you want to wait until I call Anti-Skill?" Uiharu asked, despite knowing the answer.

"How many?"

"Six. Unknown power levels. The descriptions we got weren't clear enough for identifications."

"I'll take it, tell me where they are."

Of course… "The report came from near your area," she began and gave Kuroko instructions on how to reach it, "once you get there I'll monitor the gang and guide you to them."

_I'd say you were taking unnecessary risks with this but I'm confident in your abilities. But…_

"Something doesn't feel right." Kuroko finished, turning off her microphone so she could hear without being heard. She was so immensely happy right now with the wind whistling through her hair as she teleported to the location of her next exciting Judgment work, knowing that she had a great friend like Uiharu to back her up and help in whatever way she could, and the lightness of her heart knowing that, when she was finished, she had someone who loved her to return home to. But there was this odd feeling in the back of her mind that the universe wouldn't let her be this happy for very long. It wasn't quite pessimism, just a feeling that things were too good to be true, or at least stay true for very long. "I mean if this is all I have to deal with then life would be so great."

She soon got to the location Uiharu had designated, there was no one there beside the odd pedestrian. "No rest for the wicked though," Kuroko said as she turned on her microphone, "I'm here, have you located them."

"Yeah, you got there quick, they haven't gone too far, they're heading north, I lost sight of them after they entered an alley off the side of the road you're on 180 meters ahead of you" Uiharu said, keeping an eye out in case they made any more moves.

"Roger," she heard Kuroko say, then a couple seconds later, "I feel it too…Yeah I know I know, I'll be careful…Because it's my job…. That would be an unnecessary waste of time." Each time she spoke she left a little pause, as if waiting for a response Uiharu couldn't hear.

"Kuroko, who are you talking to?" She asked curiously.

"oh uh…" 'Damn,' she cursed herself, 'I forgot to turn off the microphone.' "I'm just talking to myself." Now she's going to think I'm weird.

"O…K…" Uiharu responded, deciding not to go deeper into the matter.

"Ok, I'm at the alley, I'm going in." Kuroko said before doing just that, stepping over the large puddle at the entrance and walking in the narrow alley between the two neighboring buildings. She saw a trail of wet shoeprints leading down the alley. "Clearly one of those brutes wasn't careful enough…" Kuroko thought to herself following the trail cautiously, eyes out for an ambush. The trail soon turned off into a side alley, she heard voices coming from down it. She looked around the corner to see six people, all gathered around something. They seemed big and dumb, with the classic delinquent look. Leather jackets, dyed hair in the most idiotic of styles, and more piercings than anybody should have, especially a male.

"We got it, the boss will be happy."

"Looks like Skillout will be making its comeback soon."

"Yeah, who needs those Big Spider guys."

Kuroko had heard enough. Skillout meant they were level 0, easy enough to defeat, even if there were six of them. She stepped out from behind the corner she was hiding about, standing firm in front of them, "I am Judgment, surrender immediately or I will be forced to use force."

The six thugs looked down the alley, searching for the intruder. When they saw her they smiled and laughed. "Well isn't this lucky. A member of Judgment."

That wasn't right, they shouldn't be happy.

"Looks like we get to try out our new toy out sooner than expected." One of them said as two more stepped aside, giving Kuroko a clear view of what looked like a suitcase propped on a crate near the middle of the alley.

Kuroko was quite confused as to how exactly a suitcase could be a threat unless it had a bomb or something similar inside, and that would blow them to pieces too. And then they opened the suitcase. There was no bomb iinside, only a set of what looked like speakers. How can speakers be da…

Realization dawned on her, her eyes widened but before she could do anything else a horrible, high pitched wailing issued forth from the speakers, the pain ran through her head, making it feel like it was splitting in half. It was not nearly as painful as she had experienced before but the sound still shook her to the core, the sound of Capacity Down.

She shut off the microphone and covered her ears, trying in vain to dampen the sound and the pain as the Skillout people grinned at the little Judgment girl that was now at their mercy.

* * *

On the other end of the line Uiharu listened, she could hear Kuroko quite clearly but the other people were too far away for her to hear the replies. Then suddenly a godawful sound ripped through her earpiece. She quickly removed it and half a second later it stopped. She put it back on only to hear nothing. "Kuroko? Kuroko are you there? Are you ok?" She said concerned. She heard no answer. "Kuroko!" she yelled to hear only silence. She quickly stood up from her desk. Konori-senpai wasn't here at the moment, she had no one to turn to for help.

"No, I'm here, I'll help." She said steeling herself before running out of the office and down the street at full speed, it was quite a distance but she was needed and she wouldn't just give up, "I'm coming Kuroko."

* * *

The leader of the small group of Skillout thugs laughed, "Seems like it works quite well. Now then, shall we put this little bitch out of her misery?" He was met with approving jeers.

"_How bothersome."_

He looked down the alley again to the little girl, hunched over in pain as she slowly started to stand up again. "Huh, you shouldn't be able to stand. What is this, is this thing working." It was still issuing its high pitched wailing, but being a level 0 he couldn't feel its effect either way.

"_Having to deal with lowly trash like you is a waste of my time,"_ she said in a cold dead voice, undoing the ribbons in her hair, letting it fall freely down her back.

"What the hell, you should be writhing on the ground. What are you? You're an ESPer aren't you?"

"_What am I?"_ she considered the question for a moment and then smiled, but there was no humor or happiness in that smile, it was a smile as cold and merciless as her voice, _"I'm Kuro. I hurt people."_

"Oh is that so?" asked the leader in an amused tone, "Big talk for a little girl. We'll just see who the one who gets hurt is." He charged at her like an enraged bull, pulling his arm back for a punch.

Kuro waited as he drew near then, as he struck, she sidestepped and drove her knee into his stomach. The force of the blow, increased by his own momentum, knocked him back and off balance, so Kuro stepped forward, placing her hand beneath his chin pushing him back and driving him hard into the ground headfirst. The concussion knocked him out instantly.

The other 5 thugs looked stunned. This little girl had so quickly and easily taken out their boss. Still, they weren't about to lose, it was 5 against 1. "How dare you you uppity little brat," one of them cried out before they all charged her at once.

While the narrow alley limited Kuro's maneuverability it also meant that they couldn't attack her more than one at a time. "Idiots," she remarked as she spun around and kicked the next unfortunate bastard right in the side. She felt and heard as his ribs gave in and broke beneath her powerful, unrestrained kick.

The next one lunged at her but before he could get any further than his friend Kuro twisted in the opposite direction, hitting him hard, square on the jaw, with her heel. Blood sprayed from his mouth, painting the sidewalk, buildings, and even landing on the girl's otherwise pristine uniform. Then she took a step back and re-assumed her ready stance.

The next person, learning from the fate of his two comrades, decided it was best to get in her space as quickly as possible to avoid her kicks. He practically leaped at her as he swung his fist directly for her head. Unfortunately for him it seemed that he was so busy learning from the mistakes of his two comrades he had forgotten how his leader had met his end. Kuro easily ducked below the punch, stepping to his side and grabbing his arm. Then she used the momentum he had built up to charge through her defenses to ram him hard against the brick wall of one of the neighboring buildings.

She turned to face the next one only to see that he had picked up an iron pipe. He raised it above his head, winding up for a hit when Kuro took a step forward and kicked his forearm hard, interrupting his movements and, from the feel of it, breaking the ulna. He dropped the pipe in pain hunching over and holding his broken arm tight to him, only to be hit by the pipe as it fell directly on the back of his head, knocking him unconscious.

Kuro glanced at the last person left. He was frozen in fear, looking at his 5 comrades, so easily dispatched by this little girl. He pointed a quivering finger at her, "O…Oni." He stuttered, "You're an Oni." He turned tail and ran down the alley. Kuro casually bent down and picked up the pipe that had knocked out one of the thugs. She hefted it nonchalantly, getting a feel for its weight. Then she took aim and chucked it down the alleyway. It tomahawked through the air before finding its mark, striking the fleeing delinquent square in the back of the head. He collapsed in a heap.

Kuro looked around at her handiwork._ "they're all still breathing it seems,"_ She pondered for a moment if she should remedy that then decided not to, _"I'd probably be told off by little Shiro. Speaking of that…"_ She looked at the crate that lay in the middle of the alley and the suitcase that lay on top of it, the strange device called Capacity Down that had completely crippled her little Shiro and forced her to step in herself. She walked over to it, bending down to examine it for the off switch. That was when she noticed something. Engraved near the top of the device was a single word, a signature scrawled in looping gold colored letters. _"Jericho."_ She said out loud, _"interesting."_

* * *

Uiharu ran, out of breath but she was almost there. It had taken too long, she was worried, she had kept her earpiece in in case she received any word. She hadn't yet though, which worried her even more. If Kuroko was ok she would have called back, right?

She was now on the street that Shirai-san had been on; the alley was just up ahead. She ran for it before suddenly stopping. She turned around, "Shirai-san?" She asked, out of breath, her lungs aching.

The girl turned around, her hair was down and her hand covered her eyes as she rubbed her temples with her thumb and finger, but it was definitely her. _"Ah, Uiharu."_ She said, _"They're taken care of."_

"Never mind that, are you hurt? Why didn't you answer me?"

"_Oh,"_ she said, then proffered her palm, revealing a smashed earpiece (she had smashed it earlier in preparation for this particular lie), _"it broke."_ She explained simply, _"as for me… I have a killer headache, I'm going to go home and rest for the day, tell Konori when you get back."_

"Good to hear you're not hurt, do you need my help getting back."

"_No. You can help by making sure those thugs get arrested by Anti-Skill though," _she told her, always professional, always putting her jobs first, _"I'll submit my report tomorrow."_ She said before walking off. Uiharu nodded then got to work, she had already called anti-skill so that work comprised of sitting down and getting some much needed rest for a few minutes until they arrived and she could show them to where the apprehended criminals were. While she was waiting she got out her phone and sent a mail to Misaka-san, who, she had heard from Kuroko, was back today as well and currently hanging out with Saten-san.

"Shirai-san is heading home early, she has a headache and is heading back to the dorms to rest. When you get back take care of her and tell me how she's feeling.I'm a bit worried, she was acting kind of… weird. Thanks." She typed and sent

* * *

In the shadows on top of a nearby building was perched a lone figure. A smile crossed its face as it watched events unfold. Pulling out a phone it called a number.

"You have progress to report on your task I assume." The voice on the other end of the line said as it was picked up.

"Perhaps not progress but certainly some interesting news. It seems that retrieval is unnecessary after all. I'll fill you in on the details once I've returned." The figure elaborated

"Very well, I shall wait for your report." The voice replied before hanging up.

The figure sat and watched for a little longer before going on its way.

* * *

A short while ago and elsewhere in the city, two girls were sitting, eating parfaits in a small café that they went to often.

"So how was the trip?" Saten asked the recently returned level 5 in front of her.

"Dull," she replied in a convincingly bored voice, "Nothing really to talk about. The most exciting thing during the whole thing was the scenery passing out the window on the journey there and back."

"Pity. Trips are supposed to be fun; even school field trips are usually fun," Saten said, disappointed that she could not hear the grand tales of The Railgun's Exploits Abroad that she had conjured up in her head, "hey you know Kuroko went on a trip too? Visiting family or something, she didn't really say. She just said it was quite sudden and then left."

"Yeah I heard from her when she got back," Misaka said, playing along. It was agreed upon this morning, after the…incident and before Kuroko had left for Judgment, that it would be best if they lied about their recent exploits; she didn't want to worry their friends or, worse, make them feel useless because she had not asked them to come. Kuroko had pointed that one out and Misaka had to agree. She had not even considered the possibility when she had gone in alone that other people might feel it was because she did not trust them not to be a burden.

"She doesn't talk about herself much, she's never mentioned her family. I wonder what happened to make her want to go see them so suddenly," Saten pondered, "but perhaps it's better we don't ask, if it was a funeral or something it might be uncomfortable to have people asking questions about." Despite her behavior at times, Saten was very kind and careful about other people's emotions.

After that they talked about light, inconsequential things for a while, nothing out of the ordinary, that's when something strange happened.

A boy, about Misaka's age, walked up to the table. He seemed slightly nervous, a barely noticeable blush colored his cheeks but he held himself tall, confident but not arrogant. "Um… hey. Sorry to bother you, my name is Hitatsuki. I know it's kind of sudden and you don't know me, but… well you seem kinda cool and cute and I was wondering if maybe you'd want to exchange numbers and maybe go out sometime, together?"

'Huh… wait… what?' Misaka thought as the boy finished his nervous stammering. 'is he asking me out?' That much was obvious, but it still caught her off guard. She had never really been asked out before. Her boyish looks weren't that popular with the guys and those who could look past that were usually put off by her reputation or personality. Because of that she had no idea quite what to do or what to say. She found herself at a complete loss for words, until an image popped up in her head.

"I'm sorry, but the thing is I kind of already have someone I'm with." She said, hoping to end the situation quickly without hurting his feelings.

"Oh, I see. That's alright, sorry for bothering you." He said, disappointed but not crushed as he walked back to his table where his friend was sitting.

Misaka breathed a sigh of relief that that was over before turning back. Saten was staring at her wide eyed, mouth agape but the edges curled in a massive smile, her inner gossip consuming her with curiosity.

"You have a boyfriend?" she whispered loud enough to make the whispering redundant, "since when? Who is it?"

Misaka blushed deeply, realizing what she had said. She mentally slapped herself, having forgotten in her embarrassment that she and Kuroko weren't ready to tell anyone yet (at least she wasn't, Kuroko would shout it out to everyone as loud as possible from the top of the tallest building in the city if given the chance). "Well… uh… you see…. I… um" She couldn't think of what to say and Saten was leaning ever forward, her eyes shining with curiosity, a hunger for knowledge of this newest development.

Misaka was relieved when her phone suddenly went off. She quickly retrieved it to see she had a new message. "Is that him? Is it from your boyfriend?" Saten asked, excited as a kid in a candy store.

"No. It's from Uiharu. Kuroko is going home early with a headache," she explained reading the mail, "She's asking me to make sure she's ok." Then her phone rang again.

"That one's your boyfriend," Saten guessed teasingly. Misaka's eye twitched as she read the sender. Saten was more accurate than she thought. "Kuroko," she said, "asking if I've come home already." She sighed and looked off in the distance for a second before her gaze fell back on Saten. "hey, sorry to cut this short but I think I'm going to go home now."

"That's fine. Sorry for teasing you, I'm just excited and happy for you. I might not have anyone but I've read loads of shoujo manga so if you need advice or just someone to talk to, I have 2 ears and a lot of free time." She said sincerely, smiling at Misaka.

Misaka smiled back, grateful to have a supportive friend like her. "Thanks. Have a nice day." She said, starting for home before changing her mind and going back inside the café to pick up a piece of cake for Kuroko while she was here.

Saten watched as she left in the direction of Tokiwadai's external dorms. She smiled, "well it's a bit unexpected I have to say. She hasn't mentioned anyone at all. Maybe she just met him, on her trip maybe. She seemed to be a little embarrassed about the whole thing but I guess she would be. I wonder who it is? What kind of person is he? Will I get to meet him?"

"I wonder if the other two know..." She puzzled that thought for a minute, "Uiharu tells me everything, so if she knows I'll hear it from her. Kuroko's much closer to her than us so she probably knows, but maybe not." Either way Saten decided not to tell anyone. If Misaka didn't want people to know then she had no right to blab, she'd be a bad friend if she did.

* * *

Kuro laid down on the bed. She had had a shower and changed out of her bloodied uniform, washing it and hanging it up to dry. Now all she had to do was wait. The pereskia [1] would be back soon, as well as Shiro… hopefully.

"_It isn't a perfect plan,"_ she admitted to herself, _"but it's worked before."_ She glanced at the time on her cell phone. The pereskia's message had said that she was just heading home and would be back soon. She had placed a strange emphasis on the fact that she had just finished up when she sent her message and was heading home anyway. Given her behavior patterns from the past, this led Kuro to believe that she was, in fact, lying but too embarrassed to express worry.

"_Oh well, nothing I need to worry about,"_ she said dismissively. About half a minute later there was a knock on the door. By the time it was opened Kuro had stood up and was crossing the room.

Misaka opened the door and stepped into the room, closing the door behind her, "Hey Kuroko how…" her question was cut off when her lips were covered by Kuroko's in an unexpected kiss. For a second Misaka was caught off guard, then she hesitantly returned the kiss, pulling away a bit sooner than usual.

"What was that about?" she asked confused and a bit embarrassed.

"I have a bit of a headache," Kuroko responded, smiling happily at her, "I thought a little kiss from my beloved Onee-sama would make me feel better. Was that not ok? Did I step over the line?"

Misaka shook her head, "no, no. It's fine. It was just a bit unexpected, you know? Just don't do it in public, ok? I'm still not quite ready."

"I know, even when we're alone you still blush every time I kiss you. It really is adorable," Misaka wasn't quite sure if that was a compliment or not so she just let it slide, "don't worry though, all you need is practice, and we'll be doing plenty of that." She finished with a smile, a surprisingly innocent smile, more happiness, contentment, and love than lust and perversion.

Then Kuroko sat back on the bed, glad that her Onee-sama had received the kiss well without any suspicion and glad to be in control of her own body again. Kuro's plan had been a bit of a long shot but it seemed to have worked out in the end. _Don't my plans always work? I'm the smart one after all._

"Yeah, thanks" she said, tying her now dry hair back up in its ribbons.

"Thanks?" Misaka asked confused at Kuroko's sudden outburst as she sat on her own bed.

'I need to stop talking to you when others can hear me…' she thought, chastising herself for slipping up again. Soon people would start to think she was crazy. _You technically are._

However Kuroko was quick, "Yeah. You got me something right?" she said pointing to the box that she had noticed Misaka carrying earlier.

"Oh yeah," she said remembering, "I picked you up some cake at the café." She handed the box to Kuroko.

"Thank you Onee-sama," Kuroko repeated, taking the offering and eating it happily.

"Oh, by the way, Uiharu seemed concerned. She wanted to know if you were ok."

"I'm fine," she said. Then Misaka heard her phone ring, Kuroko winced slightly at the sudden, irritating noise.

"Speaking of Uiharu," Misaka remarked then answered the phone, "Moshi Moshi."

"Moshi Moshi. Sorry to bother you Misaka-san but… well… is Kuroko resting right now."

"No, she's up and she says she's fine."

"Um… well… could I… maybe speak to her?" she asked, her voice a mixture of confusion, nervousness, and worry.

"Sure, she's right here… is something the matter though, you sound kind of…" she trailed off.

"is it for me?" Kuroko asked. Misaka nodded. "Put it on speaker phone, I don't feel like having it blasting into my ear."

Misaka pushed the button and soon Uiharu's stuttering was pouring forth at a volume that was audible to both of them.

"You're on speaker," Misaka informed her.

"Um… Kuroko?" she asked, making sure.

"Can I help you with something?" Kuroko asked, not sure why she was calling.

"It's just… um…" she took a deep breath before continuing, "What went on today? The culprits suffered 4 concussions, 3 broken ribs, a dislocated jaw, and a broken arm. What happened to these people?"

Misaka's eyes widened, she looked at Kuroko confused. Could Kuroko have…?

"Infighting," she responded simply. Sitting up straight and clearing her throat, before expanding in a professional manner, as if she was delivering just another report for Judgment, "after engaging the culprits and offering the chance to surrender, they responded with violence. So I attempted to apprehend them alone only to be struck in the head by one of them, knocking out and destroying my communication device. After that I decided to retreat for a while and monitor them until Anti-skill arrived," she said, rattling off the story Kuro had concocted earlier, "Prior to my engagement with the culprits I overheard them arguing, though the exact subject of this argument is unknown to me. My retreat seemed to set off the last spark as the apparent leader began yelling at the others for allowing me to escape. Seemingly unhappy with him, 3 of them attacked the leader and 2 other people. One of them picked up a pipe to use as a weapon, knocking out two people, including one whom he threw the pipe at as he attempted to run away before falling unconscious himself."

Uiharu and Misaka both sighed in relief as they heard this explanation. "I'm glad to hear that you wouldn't do such a brutal thing," Uiharu said. As she did an image of the remains of the fight at hospital in district 17 came to mind. Her trust in Kuroko's story wavered for a second as she remembered the carnage but then she dispelled it. The Queen was manipulating her, and she was in quite a rage. There's no way Kuroko would do something like that again. "are you sure you're alright though?" Uiharu continued, "A blow to the head shouldn't be shrugged off, even a minor head injury can cause some serious damage."

"It's ok. With Onee-sama's loving care I'll be better in no time. Love is the greatest medicine isn't that right Onee-sama?"

"K…Kuroko," Misaka said, angry and embarrassed, "what in the world are you doing."

Uiharu giggled over the phone. "I'm glad you're back to your old self Kuroko," she said, "I was a bit worried about you after that incident. Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow." She finished before hanging up.

* * *

"Kuroko," Misaka began, seeming quite upset, "I thought we agreed that we'd keep this between us for the time being."

"I am. But the thing is that I've been making advances on you since before you even met those two. If I stop now it would be more suspicious than if I kept it up. You might not want to kiss in public but in front of them I can say or do anything to you and they'd just chalk it up to Kuroko being Kuroko."

"That doesn't mean you have free rein," Misaka shouted back. Kuroko winced in pain at her loud outburst. Kuroko had a point but if she yielded now Kuroko would likely abuse the interpreted permission.

"I know how to control myself Onee-sama," she said reassuringly, "I'll try and go easier on the affection."

"Good," Misaka said, relieved that that was settled, "Now you should probably get some rest, don't want that brain permanently damaged do you?"

Kuroko's grin fell immediately. She turned her head away from Misaka as she looked out the window. The sun had just fallen over the horizon.

Everything was silent for a few moments, and Misaka was just about to ask her what was wrong when she spoke up, "um… Onee-sama," she said. She sounded a bit nervous and Misaka could swear she heard a twinge of fear as well, "could I… sleep with you tonight?"

Any other time Misaka would have answered with a simple "Hell no," probably hitting her for even suggesting such a thing. But she could hear no perverted or impure intent in her voice, and given what had happened the past few nights… Kuroko sounded just like a child asking to sleep with his parents after a bad dream, and Misaka couldn't bring herself to say no.

So she placed and hand on Kuroko's shoulder, nodding and saying, "sure thing Kuroko."

Kuroko smiled though she seemed slightly embarrassed at having to ask such a childish thing at her age.

Soon Misaka was changed and slid into her bed, Kuroko sliding in beside her. "goodnight Onee-sama, she said happily as she got comfortable.

"Goodnight Kuroko," Misaka said. It was the first time in the past three days she had actually gotten to sleep in a proper, comfy bed and she was quickly asleep.

'It's been a busy, interesting day,' Kuroko thought to herself, 'what with this morning, and Kuro, and the skirmish with Skill-out. And then there was that…' she looked over to her bed, under which was hidden the plain little suitcase that had caused so much trouble for her today.

"Jericho… could it really be…"

* * *

Author's note: I hope the title makes a bit more sense now, if not then it will soon. This is a pretty big development, I know. And I also know that it is probably a bit confusing right now. Rest assured though, the next chapter will be focused on the story of who exactly Kuro is and where she came from. I hope that this development is not off-putting to anyone and if it is I can only ask you to be patient and see if I can't change your mind.

* * *

Ok… now to wrap up a few, very minor plot holes. These are really minor details but they bugged me that I couldn't fit or forgot an explanation to them.

1: Kuroko's and Misaka's injuries that they sustained in the contest. Misaka's healed up quickly so she took the bandage off that morning. Kuroko's is hidden from view so no one saw it.

2: Kuroko's backpack that she had in the contest. When Kuroko collapsed Misaka took it. She left it in front of the door to room where she fought The Queen and after the battle picked it up again before she left.

3: When Uiharu saw Kuro, she had the suitcase with her but Uiharu didn't notice it, thinking it was just Kuroko's bag that she always has with her. The colours and proportions were similar enough that Uiharu, not exactly paying attention to such things, didn't notice at all.

If you notice any others just tell me and I'll try and patch them up.

* * *

[1]This is Kuro's (slightly) insulting nickname for Misaka. Her reasoning for this will be given later, my reasoning is twofold. One, because the difference in what they call Misaka is another thing that can help identify them. Two, I wanted to show early on the animosity and resent Kuro harbors for Misaka, the reason for which will be explored later on as well.


	7. Toaru Kako no Toraburu

Toaru Kako no Toraburu

A Certain Trial of the Past

* * *

That night Kuroko dreamt of the past and her oldest friend.

It all started a long time ago, when she was a small child. She had just turned six when her parents sent her off to Academy city to start a new life and make something of herself. She wasn't sad to leave her home behind. Her parents weren't ever there for her anyway so she wouldn't really miss them and she had never had any real chances to make friends with other boys and girls. So when the car came to take her on her one way trip, she never even looked back.

This new city held opportunity. She had heard tales of this great place with its super advanced technology and people with special powers. It was like she was going inside a science fiction book. 'Soon I'll be one of them,' she thought, 'I'll work my very hardest and become the most powerful one of them all.' That was the day she promised herself she would stand at the top.

The key to making ESPers was Academy City's Power Curriculum Program: a demanding regimen that sought to unlock a person's personal reality and thus awaken their abilities. There were many different ways to do this, mental exercises, hypnosis, drugs. It was different for each person as the program adjusted to them and encouraged their progress individually. However there was one thing that was relatively consistent, it was unpleasant, uncomfortable at best and painful at worst.

Kuroko had it at its worst. She was frequently ill from the drugs and training. Every night her body ached from the rigors of the day and her head felt like her brain was trying to escape from its confines in her skull. Each day marched on with little progress and lots of pain. But still, Kuroko was strong, she was the strongest. She wouldn't cry until she was in bed and all the lights were turned off. These were the days Kuroko sat at the bottom.

On one of these days, as she quietly sobbed her pained tears she heard someone speaking to her, a voice from nowhere. _There's no need to cry_, It sounded like her own voice, the same playful sound that issued from her own lips, yet it was not like her voice at all, it was confident and brave and calm, unracked by tears and sobs. It was the voice she once had, and the voice she still put on when others were near. _Crying is for those who have given up. Stand strong, the strongest of all. and when the time finally comes to cry I'll be there to dry your tears._

She stopped sobbing and looked around for the source of the voice. No one was in the room besides her. "Who are you?" she asked. _I don't really know… who are you?_

"Shirai Kuroko," she said wiping her runny nose and wet red eyes. _Then I will be Kuro._

That was the day someone pulled her up.

And so the voice had taken a fragment of the child's name as her own, but she was not a fragment. Kuro was not what Kuroko was not, nor was she what Kuroko could never be. She was not some piece of Kuroko that had broken off. She was more like a spare part than a fragment. An extra voice, another viewpoint, another person to bear the load.

But she was not another heart. Kuro had no emotions. She felt no sorrow or happiness or anger. Even when Kuroko was leaping with joy or roaring with rage Kuro stayed calm, level headed. To Kuro these displays were curiosities, eccentricities of others. Not her, she felt nothing.

She was not a conscience. To her Kuroko was the only thing that mattered. She divided the world into two categories, people who hurt Kuroko and people who Kuroko liked. Everyone in the first would be treated ruthlessly, without mercy until they were unable to hurt her any more.

To others, Kuro was simply little Shirai's imaginary friend. The entity that the lonely little child would tell about her day and talk to about everything and anything under the sun. It was a being that stuck around and then disappeared as the children became older and outgrew such childish necessities. And as the child began school and made friends with the children around her Kuro's presence diminished until she, along with all the others, were left behind as childhood memories.

Not to Kuroko though. To Kuroko nothing was imaginary about her. She was Kuro's one true friend, and always would be. It didn't matter if Kuro could play with her on the see-saw or push her on the swing; when Kuroko needed her she was right there. As the other children abandoned their own imaginary friends, outgrew them like old clothes, she simply kept quiet about hers. It would be there in her head anytime she cared to call, but it did outgrow the childish moniker.

As she got older she fancied Kuro as the voice of reason, her common sense that told her what she was otherwise too blind to see. She was an adviser on anything, always presenting her with a viewpoint unskewed by the emotion that Kuroko had always felt so strongly. Kuro was the brain, she was the heart, and together they were the courage.

It was a delightful little fairy tale when she was younger. But as she got older and disillusioned she saw that it was not a delightful little story. As she learned more and grew more grounded in reason rather than fancy she recognized that it was probably chronic schizophrenia. She wasn't sure but she guessed that it had arisen as a side effect of one of the various drugs they injected her with when she was going through the Power Curriculum Program.

She had considered, once, going to a psychologist about it. But then she realized that he would probably try and cure her, and that meant getting rid of Kuro. Even knowing that she was probably a sign of mental illness, Kuroko could not bear the thought of getting rid of her. The idea that Kuro wouldn't be there for her filled her with dread and almost made her sick.

She would never drive Kuro off, no matter what. She was her oldest and most trusted friend, the only one she could rely on to protect and care for her.

However, even with so deep a bond between them, they were still subject to the capricious nature of relationships. They had their ups and downs. They frequently fought and rarely, but sometimes, got mad at each other. But mostly their relationship would go through periods of presence and absence. When Shiro was untroubled, content and safe, Kuro was silent. She was unneeded when Shiro had a smile on her face. When her life was going well and she had many people to call friends then Kuro sank into the background until called back by Shiro for advice or comfort.

For that reason it had been a while since she had needed her. Even with the various conflicts in her life, Shiro was happy, possibly the happiest Kuro had ever seen her. Kuro was content to simply lay back and hope that Shiro would never need her again, forgetting her completely in lieu of new friends that could make Shiro happier than she ever could. Kuro was meant to hoist her up to the top and dry her tears when she couldn't climb any more. She was never meant to make Shiro smile.

That was when it had happened. That new voice came, the voice of honey and thorns. It taunted and prodded and tugged Shiro's emotion like a spider trapping its prey. Shiro went further into the darkness and Kuro's own voice weakened as she was forced to watch Shiro plummet back towards the bottom they had worked so hard to climb out of.

_Crying is for those who have given up._

Kuro was an extra voice but she was not an extra heart. She had no emotions. She felt nothing. She could not cry. She could never surrender and shed tears of defeat. She could never give up.

She grabbed Shiro with hands she did not have, caught her plummeting form and lifted her back up with strength she could not possess. In her desperation she had borrowed Shiro's own hands, used Shiro's own strength to pull her back up. A spare part turned something more, something stronger. She would never let Shiro fall again, now she could protect her with more than just words.

Still, it was her body, her life. When the time came when she was emboldened enough to claim it back, Kuro would always relinquish it.

The ordeal was over now, the voice of honey and thorns driven out leaving only the scars behind. Shiro didn't know what had gone on, only shadows of the past and the kiss remained in her head. Kuro remembers. She was the one who gathered up the memories and locked them up. Kuroko didn't mind, she trusted Kuro when she said that they were painful. She was strong but she had a feeling that not even the strongest would want to face what lay behind those locks and chains.

It had left Kuro stronger though. Her voice which had weakened was now louder than ever, it could not be ignored. Not only that but she was restless, unable to simply lapse back into the peaceful place she had always retreated to when Shiro didn't need her. She saw it as a blessing for her but a curse for Shiro. So she tried to keep quiet, made sure to come out only when completely necessary. She would protect Shiro till her last breath but would not stop her from being happy at other times.

That was the day that Kuroko dreamt of the past and of her oldest friend.

She was not sure if it was a nightmare or not.

* * *

Author's note: This chapter is… different. There's no romance or action or comedy. It's more poetry than part of the story and nothing really happens. But it is necessary to truly understand Kuro and how she came to be. I hope you enjoy it and I promise that next chapter will have plenty of the romance, comedy, action and story that this chapter doesn't.

Also, I recognize that it can get confusing at times so I'll try and explain it. Shiro is what Kuro calls the main personality, that is to say the person who I've been calling Kuroko. There is a story behind that that comes later. When Kuro is talking about Kuroko, after a certain point at least, she uses Shiro. When I'm talking about her as an author or using her viewpoint than I use Kuroko.


	8. Toaru Kotoba no Sentaku

Toaru Kotoba no Sentaku

A Certain Choice of Words

* * *

**Important reminder:** remember Italics=Kuro. Few times Kuro "speaks" it is designated as coming from her, other than the italics.

* * *

Misaka awoke the next morning feeling quite rested. The clock read 7:33, the sun was shining brightly, the bird were chirping their sweet songs, and Kuroko was nestled comfortably in her chest. Misaka had a problem with one of those things, and it wasn't the time.

"Kuroko," she said in a sing-song voice, "you should probably get up now and get off of me before I get very angry."

The response came slightly muffled by flesh and fabric, "I would but it isn't too easy to do when you're holding me so tightly."

Misaka blushed a light shade of pink as she realised that it was indeed her that held Kuroko in a vice grip, pinning her roommate to her. She immediately withdrew her arms only to have them pinned to either side of her head the next moment by Kuroko.

She lifted her head from Misaka's chest and took a couple deep breaths. "Honestly Onee-sama, as much as I'd love to die in your embrace I'm a little too young to be doing that quite yet, neh?" Then she leaned forward and gave Misaka a short peck on the lips, making her blush deepen considerably, her pinned hands clenching into fists, "good morning Onee-sama," Kuroko said happily, her voice as cheerful and melodic as the birds.

"good morning," she said averting her eyes in embarrassment as she squirmed a little in Kuroko's hold. She was just about to yell at her to get off when she let go on her own, standing up and going into the bathroom to get ready for a new day.

After Kuroko finished Misaka did the same, and by the time she left the bathroom it was almost 8. Kuroko sat at her desk looking at her calendar. "School vacation is almost over," she remarked. She looked thoughtful for a second and then turned to Misaka, "when's our anniversary?" she asked.

The question caught Misaka off-guard. "Huh?" she asked confused.

"Well..." Kuroko began to elaborate, "it's just that I was wondering what day our anniversary would be on. 2 days ago would make sense but I don't really remember much and we didn't really seal our relationship until yesterday. The other option would be to wait until some other event to happen to call our anniversary. Like our first date or something similar."

It was a valid question but Misaka didn't know what to say. she wasn't even sure if they were a couple yet. Sure, yesterday she had said she had someone, and she didn't plan on half-assing this and giving up on the relationship halfway through... but she still had trouble saying that Kuroko was her girlfriend.

Kuroko saw the conflict on her face and knew that it was about more than just which day their anniversary would be on._ What is there to be conflicted about?_. "On second thought, don't worry about it," she said with a smile, "we have plenty of time to figure it out, right?"

Misaka smiled back, a little forced, but mostly genuine "right."

"I have Judgment work until around 5," Kuroko said, getting off the subject. "I also have something else I need to do after that." she sighed, "looks like I can't spend any time with Onee-sama today." She was disappointed, even if the extra work was her own decision. She needed to find out more about that suitcase and its contents. _If it's what we think it is, then we should be the ones who look into it. _Kuro agreed.

Misaka nodded. Her own schedule was pretty much empty, so she was just going to head out, maybe she would see if Saten was free again.

"Well then," Kuroko said, "I should probably go, I'll see you later." then she walked up to Misaka, "A kiss for the road?" she asked.

Misaka answered her with a solid, but soft (for her) hit on the head.

"oww..." Kuroko whined, rubbing the tender spot, _Pereskia_, "no kiss before I head off to my job? Some housewife you are." she teased, bracing herself for the next hit.

It came, this time with considerably more force, "Urosai!" she yelled, blushing.

Kuroko giggled, "gomen gomen," she apologized, "See you then." She said as she teleported out.

After disappearing from the room away from her slightly enraged lover (well maybe not yet but soon), Kuroko teleported 2 more times, arriving at the top of a tall building. She still had quite a long time until she needed to get to Judgment but she needed some time now to herself.

"Kuro," she called quietly, "we need to have a talk about yesterday."

_You were in danger, I protected you. I see nothing else to talk about._

"Four concussions, 3 broken ribs, a dislocated jaw, and a fractured arm," she reminded her, "and you think that's nothing to talk about?"

_No I do not. Nothing I do in order to protect you is unjustified._

"I can protect myself."

_ You couldn't yesterday. Yesterday that capacity down completely crippled you, if I hadn't stepped in you would have been hurt or killed._

"Why weren't you affected anyway?" Kuroko asked, wondering about that since yesterday.

_The key to an ESPer's power is their personal reality, and your reality is your own. Even when I control your body I can not control your powers. You might be a level 4 but I'm not even a level zero[1]. While it means I do not have your potential there are still some things that I can do that you can not. Because of that very handicap I am unaffected by the other capacity down's that we're looking for._

"How do you know there are others."

_ Common sense. If there was only one of these things then there would have been far tighter security on it. A small group of trash like the ones from yesterday never would have gotten their hands on it._

She had a point. She always had a point. "ughh... whenever you go into common sense mode you make me feel stupid." she complained.

_Better than acting stupid._

"... neh, Kuro,if you ever need to take control of my body again, will you continue hurting people as severely as yesterday?"

_ If necessary. I will refrain from killing except as a last resort, but I will not hesitate for a second to break a person's arm if they raise it against you._

"Thought so..." Kuroko said, sighing. Before teleporting off the building and walking down the street. She would need a way to end fights as quickly as possible with the least amount of effort and damage to the other person. It was a tall order but it should prevent Kuro from coming out again.

So she stopped by a nearby bookstore to pick up so material for research. ESPer powers had as many uses as the ESPer can think, but they still needed to discover them. After she chose a selection of books that she thought would be appropriate she walked out.

_What exactly are you planning little Shiro?_

"Shouldn't you know?"

_While I can make a guess based off of what you chose, I cannot read your thoughts, no._

"Why is that anyway?"

_I don't really know. It seems to run both ways though, you only hear what I express, not each and every thought I have._

"Probably for the best. Your thoughts scare me as is and I just hear a few of them."

_I agree. Your infatuation and never-ending thoughts of that pereskia would drive me insane if I could hear them._

The thought amused Kuroko, "A product of my insanity going insane itself... would you get a little voice too?'

_I fail to see the humor in that._

"You fail to see the humor in anything."

"Hey Kuroko," said a familiar voice coming from behind her. She turned around to see Saten-san jogging up to her, "hey the- oh, sorry." she said pointing to the phone Kuroko was holding up to her ear, "I heard you talking but I didn't know you were on the phone. Sorry to interrupt."

"I gotta go," Kuroko said, closing the phone. It had been Kuro's idea, and a good one. As long as people weren't listening to what she said then it wouldn't be suspicious at all. She looked at Saten "Don't worry about it. The conversation was over anyway. Was there something you wanted?"

"Not really, just wanted to say hi. I didn't see you yesterday after your trip, so I wanted to know how things went."

"They were just fine, if a bit boring."

"Ah, Misaka said the same thing. speaking of that, I was just heading to meet her, you off to work?"

"yes I am, so no need to brag over how much free time you have," she teased, "anyway I should get going, have fun with Onee-sama, try to keep her out of trouble."

"I don't know, that doesn't exactly sound easy," The black hair girl said with only half-fake hesitation.

"Holding back the tides couldn't be harder, but do your best," Kuroko said with a smile as she walked off.

Saten watched as the other girl disappeared in the distance and the crowd. 'Seems like she's not particularly upset or depressed,' she thought to herself, 'that means I'm the only one who knows about Misaka's boyfriend. Don't worry Misaka, your secret is safe with me.

* * *

After that the teleporter headed off to Judgment Branch 177 to begin her work. She walked into the office and sat down at her desk. Uiharu had yet to arrive but Konori-senpai was there already, drinking from a carton of Musashino Milk. Not that she needed any more. Kuroko on the other hand... well they would grow in time, she was sure. 'Oh well, Onee-sama loves me either way,' she thought to herself, 'maybe she even prefers them.' _If she does it's only because they're smaller than hers._

"Oi, Kuroko," Konori called out to her, "I'll be needing your report on that incident yesterday as soon as possible."

"Hai," she responded, immediately getting out the necessary paperwork and beginning to fill it out.

Konori's gaze lingered on the girl though. She wasn't sure if it was her policewoman's intuition or her ESPer power, but something felt wrong about this whole thing. Kuroko was hiding something and it bothered her. "I read the initial report," she said nonchalantly as her glasses slid to the tip of her nose, "It was quite brutal what happened to the culprits wasn't it?"

Kuroko casually glanced in her direction, still typing up the report. Konori was peering intently at her over the rim of her glasses. That meant she was probably using her clairvoyance[2]. She was suspicious and looking for an answer, and with her ability Kuroko couldn't lie to her.

"The messes you leave for me Kuro," she whispered under her breath, she sighed and then said to Konori-senpai, "You're suspicious I take it? I understand, the events were a bit out of the ordinary and Occam's Razor would seem to point to my guilt, no matter how much you trust me. But I promise that did not injure any one of those culprits."Then in her head she added, 'Kuro did.'

Konori pushed her glasses back up. She wasn't lying, she really didn't hurt them it seemed. "I apologize. But it was an odd situation. It was reported as a robbery but nothing has been reported missing or stolen. The culprits were all found severely injured, some of them blithering about some demon that attacked them, and there was no recently stolen items found in their possessions." She sighed deeply, "I'm too old for all this ridiculous excitement." she remarked.

Kuroko giggled at that, "you've been in law enforcement too long, you're starting to sound like a police chief from a movie."

Konori smiled, "You're the loose cannon cop then I take it."

"Well he is the one that always gets things done isn't he?"

"Maybe, but the credits always roll before they show the mountain of paperwork and lawsuits he would rack up every case."

They shared a laugh, the heavy, troubled atmosphere long dispersed. Afterwards they got back to their own work. A short while later they were joined by Uiharu. They greeted each other before getting back to their busy day at Judgment.

Meanwhile Misaka and Saten had met up and were now hanging out at a nearby restaurant.

"Hey Misaka, is something the matter?" Saten asked the seemingly troubled girl.

"It's nothing important." she said dismissively.

"That's fine. We're friends, if we limited our conversation to important things we wouldn't talk much would we?"

"It's just..." she took a deep breath and averted her eyes from Saten's gaze before continuing, "on what day should an anniversary be?"

The question was sudden, but Saten was excited to hear it. It seems she had decided to take her up on her offer from yesterday and tell her about this guy. Saten was happy to have been chosen to be her source of advice and promised that she would do her best to provide it. So she gave it some thought before answering. "Well usually it's a month or year or some other significant length of time after the relationship starts."

"And when is that? When exactly does a relationship begin?" Misaka questioned, voicing her inner conflicts. It was a relief just to talk about this and maybe Saten could really help her sort things out.

"That question is a little more difficult," Saten said, "In manga and things there always seems to be one pivotal moment of romance, a confession, a kiss, or something similar that lets you know that they are a couple. I suppose you could choose something like that."

Misaka seemed to mull her answer over for a while before nodding, "I suppose that works. Thanks."

"No problem, though I'd be able to give you better advice if I knew the details. Can you at least tell me what he's like?"

"Annoying. (s)he's[3] a complete pest that bugs me almost constantly while I'm with him. He does what he wants with little regard to the feelings of others. He's stubborn, arrogant, and vain and he frequently tries to push his interests on others. Not only that but he's a pervert that frequently teases me," She ranted before muttering to herself, "who does he think he is... calling me a housewife."

Saten suddenly had the image of Misaka in an apron with a frying pan, smiling as she said, "welcome home dear." She tried hard not to laugh but it was too much for her to keep in and she burst out into laughter, attracting a few stares from the restaurant's other patrons and making Misaka blush at the attention. "Don't laugh," she said angrily.

"Gomen, gomen," she said getting a hold of herself again, "So does he have any redeeming features or are you just a masochist?"

Her blush deepened as she started to regret talking to Saten, but at the same time it felt good to talk about this, as if a great weight was being lifted off her shoulders. So she took a deep breath and continued, "He's unwaveringly loyal to the people he cares about and once he has found something or someone he likes he is completely and utterly devoted to it. He has an unshakable sense of justice and will risk his own life to help others. He's very kind and very forgiving."

"Sounds decent enough I suppose. When did you two meet?"

"A few months ago."

That came as a bit of a shock. 'She's managed to hide a guy from us for all that time? I must have been blind not to see it. Then again, maybe I just assumed that she wasn't the type to have a boyfriend.' Saten reasoned.

Misaka was getting a bit restless. She looked uncomfortable, like she didn't really want to continue. Saten was eager for more information but decided to leave it here. "Well I wish you two luck. I hope my advice turns out to be useful, and I'd be happy to give more sometime."

Misaka smiled, happy that Saten was dropping it here. If she had continued Misaka might have accidently let something slip. "Yeah, thanks a lot."

They continued to talk about light, inconsequential things, leaving the restaurant after a while and doing some window shopping before parting ways.

Misaka began walking home. She had had a good time and the talk had helped but there were still several unresolved problems. Talking to Saten had made her realize just how easily some detail could slip out and then the world would find out about her and Kuroko. After that... she didn't know what would happen. It wasn't purely out of shame that she kept it all a secret, though it would be a lie to say that didn't play a part in it, it was also because she didn't want everything to change. Her life was good right now, happy. She didn't want to lose any part of it. As long as no one knew about her and Kuroko nothing would change and they would stay happy, right?

The whole thing scared her, and that fear annoyed her. She wished she could just fix this problem like she could all her others, by pumping it so full of electricity that it stopped moving, the fact that she couldn't made her angry.

That's when she saw a familiar patch of spiky hair turn off from the crowd into an alley. Misaka smiled, 'this works' she thought to herself as she followed her unlucky little punching bag.

She didn't know how long she chased him or how many lightning bolts she fired at him to no effect. She didn't know how far they had run or where they were. She didn't care.

Right now she had him cornered in an alley. Lightning crackled in her hand as she wondered just how many volts she could sink into the little hand of his without causing another blackout. however, just before she could fry him, her phone went off. She frowned at the interruption but retrieved the device from her pocket, checking who it could be.

It was a message from Kuroko, "Just got done with Judgment for the day but I still have to finish my other work. I miss you and I wish that I didn't have to do this so I could spend some time with you. But you'll be in my thoughts, so keep me in yours XOXO. -Kuroko"

When she finished reading it she smiled. The workout/venting session had long since worn away her anger, leaving her feeling exhausted and happy. For some reason this simple text made her fell glad. 'Maybe this is what it feels like to be in a relationship,' she mused.

Then she turned on her heel and left the alley to find her way home, forgetting all about the confused little punching bag wondering what had been on that phone that had saved him from further onslaught.

"I will, so do your work well then hurry on home. -Misaka"

* * *

[1] that may sound impossible but there is a difference between a level zero and an ordinary person. A level zero emits AIM, even if it is a miniscule amount. Kuro doesn't emit any.

[2] As opposed to the common assumption that Konori's power is X-ray vision (it's what I thought it was) her power is actually a form of clairvoyance that allows her to see hidden things and prevents her from being surprised.

[3] Despite the fact that this fanfiction is in English the fact is that the people are still speaking Japanese, which (as far as my limited knowledge of Japanese goes) doesn't always differentiate between male and female third person pronouns. Misaka is being deliberately ambiguous in her speech because while she doesn't want to draw attention to herself, she feels that using the word boyfriend or male pronouns would be lying and showing that she was ashamed to be in a relationship with Kuroko. However, for the ease of the reader I will put male pronouns to signify what someone hearing it would presume.


	9. Toaru Hanzai no Sekai

Toaru Hanzai no Sekai

A Certain World of Crime

* * *

It was another boring day at Judgment. She had had paperwork to deal with and then been kept busy with frivolous tasks for the rest of the day. Most of the time she spent talking to Kuro quietly, she also managed to get some practice in here and there but was careful not to overuse her power and tire herself out. Though it was still quite a monotonous afternoon and she was glad when five o' clock rolled around and she clocked out. She sent a short, affectionate message to her Onee-sama and smiled when she received the reply. It made her wish she could just return home now and forget about this whole thing.

_But you can't and you know it._

"And why not," she argued, though she knew the answer, "it might have nothing to do with that or me."

_But it might, and if it does can you really let someone else deal with this?_

"Why not?"

_I know you care more about this than that, you want to make sure yourself, you are just arguing for the sake of arguing._

"I know..." She resigned before resuming her search. Before she could do anything she needed more information about the suitcase and its contents. She decided that the person who could most easily and thoroughly answer that would be someone from the gang she had encountered yesterday. 3 of them had been arrested for various stolen merchandise on their possession but the other 3 couldn't be charged with anything, as no one had reported anything as stolen and eyewitness accounts were sketchy at best. So they had been released.

Normally this would have upset Kuroko but today it worked out in her favor. Now if only she could find one of the pests. She scoured the streets looking for them. Her search was random, non-methodical, and highly inefficient. It relied mostly on luck and she knew it. But there was no other way.

Besides, as it turned out, luck was on her side. It took an hour and a half of searching but she finally saw someone from the skirmish yesterday. He was the one who had tried to run away. There was a bandage wrapped around his head where the pipe had made contact. He was talking to another person, a delinquent friend of his by the look of it. Kuroko listened in from behind the corner.

"So we were surrounded by like, 15 guys," he said, "and we were kicking their asses, when this one guy shows up carrying a big ass bat. He must have been six feet tall and built like a refrigerator with a demonic look in his eyes, he starts swinging the bat taking each of our guys out, I put up a fight but one of his friends snuck up behind me, I turned around to take care of him but the guy got in a cheap shot and took me out."

"Six feet tall? Built like a refrigerator? Demonic look?" Kuroko said rounding the corner, "That's not very nice you know. Talk about a girl like that and you might hurt her feelings."

The look on his face as he turned around to see the very demon he was talking about was absolutely priceless. His eyes widened in fear, pupils dilating instantly. His jaw fell open as he backpedaled a few steps, "shit," he said as he turned around to flee. Kuroko had different plans though and teleported in front of him several feet.

"Come now, you remember how well running away worked last time don't you? I suggest you just stay still and do as I ask."

The guy's friend laughed as he watched this display, "dude, your demon is this little brat?" he taunted as he walked forward, "you're really frightened of this..." He began as he reached out his hand to grab Kuroko. Effortlessly Kuroko stepped forward, kicking his shin to unbalance him and tossing him to the cold, unforgiving ground.

"Now that that's out of the way, I have some questions to ask you," she said turning back to the terrified thug.

He held his hands up in surrender, "sure anything."

"That thing from yesterday, the suitcase, what was it?"

"It was this new portable capacity down that just showed up on the Black Market. There aren't that many of them and they're really valuable so we decided to steal one instead of buying." He explained obediently.

"Black Market? What are you talking about?"

"It's this huge thing, set up all around the city. You can get anything and everything there and they have tons of locations. Skillout gets things there all the time."

"Where can I find it?"

"It moves around a lot but right now you can find it in a warehouse near the northern edge of this district, there should be two guards outside the door of the right one. I heard that Wise Man Migime was the one auctioning them off. Tall, dark skin, eyepatch over his left eye. You can't miss him."

"How do I get in?"

"Just talk to the doormen, they'll ask what you're looking for, say "the pearl in the dragon's claw" or some shit like that and they'll let you in."

"Is that everything?" Kuroko asked when he stopped speaking.

"Yes, I promise."

"Good, then get out of her, and find a less dangerous profession, crime can be quite hazardous to one's health." She advised, the threat clear in her tone. As fast as a speeding bullet he turned tail and ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction.

_If I could feel emotions I'm sure I'd be proud of you right now. You handled that very well, you're pretty good at intimidation when you feel like it._

"I'll try to take that as a compliment," she replied sarcastically before heading off to find this Black Market that the thug had spoken of.

It had gotten dark before she had found her way to the warehouse in question. It would be curfew soon... Misaka must be wondering where she was. From the rooftop she was perched on she typed out a short text to her worried Onee-sama "Sorry, It's taking longer than I thought, I probably won't be back until after curfew, cover for me please. Love you. -Kuroko" And with that sent she changed into the set of clothes she had brought with her. Her Tokiwadai uniform was far too conspicuous and could easily identify her as someone of value. Not something she wanted to flaunt in a place like this. After that she teleported down to street level and walked up to the building.

She was met with a querying look from one of the guards. Then he grinned and said in a taunting tone "What's a little girly like you doing in a dangerous place like this? Maybe you better go home before something happens to you." he stepped forward leaning towards her menacingly, but this put him off balance and Kuroko easily swept his feet out from under him, slamming him to the ground.

"I have neither interest in, nor time for your protests. I am looking for the pearl in the dragon's claw, now is this it or are you just an idiot lolling about to scare away the crows."

The other guard laughed. "You got guts kid. You're new here, a runner I take it. Sorry for him, he doesn't seem to understand just how dangerous even a little girl can be in this city. Head on in." He opened up the door and Kuroko walked in unhesitatingly.

_Good, good. A display of violence will win you respect in this place._

She walked into the warehouse to see it was packed with people and stands, like a festival being held indoors. But the stands weren't full of masks or food, they were full of slightly more dangerous things. Various pieces of technology of all different types were on display. Some of it looked even more advanced than even academy city's current tech. A few pieces she recognized, like a cellphone that's released had been set for several months in the future, yet there it rested, sitting inconspicuously beside similar bits and pieces.

She was walking along the stands, just another head in the crowd when something caught her eye, or more accurately Kuro's.

_Hey, Shiro. How about we make a little deal?_

After listening briefly to the terms of Kuro's plan, she agreed and walked over to the stand. She purchased the devices which had fascinated Kuro. She stashed it away and continued walking.

In short order she had found someone that matched the thugs description, as he said he was a hard man to miss. He was aged, his skin lined with wrinkles and his short hair greyed where it wasn't gone entirely. His face was rough, a black eye patch covered his left eye. He was wearing a fancy business suit that didn't match his slouched posture and five o' clock shadow.

"'Wise man Megime?'" Kuroko asked.

"That's what I'm called around here," he said, fixing his one good eye on Kuroko. His gaze was piercing and made Kuroko feel slightly nervous, but she continued nevertheless.

"I was looking for some information on a certain product which I was told you were in charge of selling. A suitcase which had a sound system built into it."

"Why do you want the information?" He asked.

"Umm..." Kuroko froze, she hadn't thought this part through, too concerned with getting in and around undetected, "You see I..."

"Ah, there you are," said a young, female voice from behind her, "don't go running off like that. And there's no need to be embarrassed." she said stepping forward. She was a short girl, even shorter than Kuroko with long blond hair that flowed down her back. She wore a bright colored T-shirt and shorts and a pair of sneakers. "Someone botched up the drop-off so now she has nothing to deliver, she new at this and doesn't want her first run to be a failure so she's trying to figure out how to get it back."

She turned around, "right?" She said with a smile. She had a very cheerful face, her jade colored eyes shone brightly.

"Uh, yeah." Kuroko responded, taken aback by this turn of events.

Megime looked at her oddly then sighed. "Your heart's too big for this business, you know that?"

The girl giggled and responded, "The money's too good for me to get out of it."

Megime knew she was lying. He always knew when people were lying, he had a gift for knowing people's intentions, that was why he was one of the best in the industry. But he knew this girl well. She was sweet and kind, often stopping by just to say hi and have a short chat. She'd always brighten up his day with her smile and possessed a generosity and sweetness rarely seen in this kind of place. She was the only one who had remembered his birthday this year. If she was vouching for this girl then he felt like he owed her a little bit of help. "What did you want to know about them." he asked Kuroko.

"Who made them?" she replied.

"There's a person who goes by the pseudonym of Jericho. He's an inventor who takes requests online and delivers them through a third person. No one quite knows the true identity. The odd thing is that he has never done any weapons technology before, not only that but he hasn't been heard from in days, ever since these devices first surfaced."

"How many are there?"

"Three that I sold but I heard there were three more, so a total of six."

"You say this Jericho was an inventor, what kind of things did he invent?"

"Mostly sound manipulation or emission technology, and he mostly works straight. He's designed speakers for communications companies, sonic drills for mining corporations, and other things like that. Very high quality, his skills are in considerable demand and quite valuable. You know, you have yet to ask a question that relates to actually finding one of these things."

"Uh... oh yeah... who did you sell them to and where can I find them?"

"Can't tell you, professional code of conduct and all. You understand."

"Yes sir, thank you for your help." Kuroko said, bowing her head respectfully.

"Yep, thank you Megi." The other girl said before grabbing Kuroko's arm, "now let's go and finish up that first run of yours eh?" She said and dragged Kuroko out of the building.

"Thank you," Kuroko said, "I would have been in trouble without your help. Though can I ask why you helped me?"

"I don't like seeing people get hurt and die." She responded.

Kuroko was taken aback by her bluntness and her words, "uh... well thank you for your concern... what's your name?"

"Oh, I'm Birdy," she said and smiled, "I'm a runner for the Hitoyashu family. Who are you?"

"I'm Shirai Kuroko." She offered her hand with a smile.

Birdy took it and shook it heartily, "nice to meet you. So what did you come here for anyway? Don't worry, I promise I can keep a secret for a friend."

She pondered for a second if it was ok to talk about it. Guessing what she was thinking about, Kuro piped up. She did help us back there; I see no reason not to trust her. "I came to get some information. I ran across one of those devices and it piqued my interest. I've come across similar things before and they can be quite dangerous in the wrong hands. So I wanted to find out who created them and if I could find the locations of any others."

"That makes sense, though I question why you chose to get involved. Were you just bored and looking for a little excitement, or are you some kind of undercover cop."

"While I do work for Judgment this is strictly under-the-radar. What I'm doing right now would probably get me in quite a bit of trouble if they knew about it." She sighed, "this is a personal matter for me."

Her smile dropped for a second as she said cautiously, "Judgment eh? That's a bit dangerous to say to someone like me isn't it?"

"You don't need to worry, I have no reason to turn you in, and talking about any of this would not be for my benefit. I promise you that right now I have no connection with Judgment. I trust you to keep my secrets just like you can trust me to keep yours."

She looked deep into Kuroko's eyes as if searching for something. Then she smiled as she found it, the truth behind her words. "Good to hear," she replied, "though I personally don't have any worries. Ever since I joined up with the Hitoyashu I've been doing fully legal work. They take good care of me and keep me out of trouble."

"If I may ask, what work exactly do you do? What is a runner?"

"A runner is kind of like a courier, a mailman if you will. But we deliver things that mailmen can't. Different runners do different types of work in varying levels of legality. Some work freelance, others work for a particular family or organization. I used to work freelance but on one assignment, one that wasn't even high risk, I got ambushed by some people who wanted to intercept the package I was delivering. I fought back but I was overwhelmed. It would have all been over but I was saved by Itora Hitoyashu, the leader of the Hitoyashu supply family. He told me that I should be more careful and offered a job with him, said that if I joined he could protect me. I took him up on his offer. He's really kind and generous; he pays my tuition, makes sure my contracts are safe enough, and gives me a good paycheck. Not only that but he keeps me on the clean side of the law, says that even if something goes wrong he doesn't want his faithful employees to take the heat."

"What exactly do you mean by supply family?" Kuroko asked, eager to learn more about this world that she had just been introduced to, even if it was a world of crime.

"Academy City's technology is 20-30 years ahead of just about anywhere else in the world. The problem is that it doesn't really share that technology with the rest of the world. Even within the city there are many huge developments that are kept under wraps for only a select few individuals. Supply families are groups of people who try and distribute these pieces of technology with the rest of us, trading high tech machines with the outside world and restricted tech to the masses of Academy City. Each family trades and deals with various types of tech, the Hitoyashu sell medical and manufacturing technology, allowing outside hospitals to be as effective as the ones in Academy City."

"How is that criminal? That isn't wrong at all."

"Just because something isn't bad or wrong doesn't mean it's legal. The higher ups in Academy City tend to hoard technology for themselves. They've isolated Academy City from the rest of the world and don't care what happens to anywhere else. The families, for the most part, disagree with this and try to share the tech with the rest of the world. Some are in it strictly for the money, but only a few. There's the Honogun family who deal in military technology, selling high tech weaponry to the highest bidder both in and out the city. Most of the other families disagree with their methods but they are too powerful and wealthy to try and dissuade."

"I see…" said Kuroko, absorbing all this information. Sure they were doing illegal things but not all of them were bad it seemed. Laws were meant to be followed but… keeping medical technology that could save hundreds from the outside world for no reason wasn't something Kuroko could agree with, "it sounds like you work for some noble people."

Birdy smiled again, "yes, very noble. I'm happy I met him. Anyway it's getting late and I should get going, but we should talk again sometime. Oh do you have a phone? We should exchange numbers."

"Uh...yeah I do… here," she said getting it out and exchanging numbers with her.

"Thanks, talk to you later," Birdy said, waving to her before heading off. She moved in an odd fashion, even though she wore sneakers it looked more like she was a skater on ice. She rapidly picked up speed, and was soon a long distant blur.

_An odd girl but a potentially useful person._

"Yeah, I suppose so." She looked at her watch it was late. The sun had already fallen in the sky, it was several minutes past curfew. She sighed, teleporting back to the location she had dropped off her clothes and changed back into them before teleporting off and away, back to her dorm.

She arrived without incident, even teleporting into her room without being seen. Misaka was already asleep tucked in her bed. Kuroko stashed away Kuro's new toys under her bed along with the portable Capacity Down then changed into her pajamas. Then she quietly slipped into Misaka's bed along with her, snuggling up to her precious Onee-sama.

It had been another long day, but she had gained some useful information. Not only about this entirely new world she had been introduced to, but also about the matter at hand.

'It seems like it really is as I thought. Now the only question is why. Why are you doing this?' she would need to find the creator of that device, Jericho, and straighten this whole thing out, 'this isn't how I wanted things to turn out. But who could have guessed things would end up like this.'

She felt as arms wrapped themselves around her in a comforting embrace and smiled. "Onee-sama," she whispered, before heading off to sleep.

* * *

Author's note: This is the second half to the previous chapter. It's a development I've been planning for quite some time and I like to think I pulled it off well enough. I'm not sure if a black market is ever referenced in the series but it seems to me that it would be next to impossible not to have one for a city like this. The hard thing was keeping it noble enough that Kuroko's sense of justice wouldn't be too enflamed, so I made them more like scientific Robin Hoods than criminals. They will play a fairly large part in this arc so make sure you pay attention. Till the next chapter, hope you enjoy.


	10. Toaru Kekka no Jizoku

Toaru Kekka no Jizoku

A Certain Persistence of Consequences

* * *

The next morning Misaka was woken up by the blaring of an alarm clock. She sleepily reached over to her nightstand to turn it off but another hand reached over and beat her to it. She looked down to see that Kuroko had come back sometime late last night and slipped into bed with her.

Misaka had, as requested of her, covered for Kuroko so her absence after curfew was not discovered. But last night as the minutes dragged on and Kuroko had not come home she had begun to worry a little bit. Even now she was concerned and curious as to what had gone on that had delayed her return so much. Knowing Kuroko she had probably got herself into a lot of trouble which Misaka would need to help her get out of. Their relationship seemed to be built on those types of happenings after all.

Suddenly she found herself looking into the eyes of the girl in question as they locked gazes and lips. It lasted for a few seconds before Kuroko pulled away. "Earth to Misaka," she said, "Are you awake yet?"

"O…of course I'm awake, y…you don't need to do that every morning you know," she stuttered, still blushing despite all the "experience" she had gotten the past couple days.

"You weren't answering me. Besides, of course I do. If I don't take these small, rare opportunities to kiss you while I have them, then I'll never get to." Kuroko explained with a wry grin, "By the way, thank you so much for covering for me last night."

Misaka was glad that Kuroko had brought it up and she could ask her about it in a straight forward manner, "what were you doing anyway?"

"I was out pretty late working. Tokiwadai sure gives out a lot of homework considering it's only a five day break and with everything else that happened I was a bit behind."

"…eh?" Misaka said as her eyes widened, "EH?"

"Onee-sama… don't tell me you forgot your homework? Even with Judgment work I managed to get it done, you've just been goofing off these past two days."

"Shut up. If you remembered why didn't you remind me?"

"I guess I didn't. I'm sorry." Kuroko said, sounding genuinely apologetic.

"No, no… it's not your fault," she said sighing as she got up, "I'll just get as much of it done as I can now, before we go to school."

"Excellent idea Onee-sama," she said getting up as well and standing behind Misaka, "and I'll help you get ready while you work." She said as she wrapped her arms around her, "first of all let's get you out of these clothes." She began undoing her buttons. But she had not even undone the first one when, predictably, Misaka grabbed her wrists tightly and slightly painfully.

"I can do that myself thank you," she said threateningly as she wrench Kuroko's hands away from herself. As she grabbed her uniform and went into the bathroom to get ready.

Kuroko sighed then smiled, "Just like Onee-sama to forget to do her homework, even with all the free time she had."

_It worked out in your favor though Shiro. She became far too distracted to continue her inquiries as to what you were doing last night._

"I don't like this. All this lying is really tiring me out."

_You have no other choice than to lie._

"That's what I hate about it."

Misaka was rushing to get ready, having only a short shower before getting changed into her uniform and brushing her teeth. After that she sat at her desk and got her homework out. She still had 23 minutes before she would need to leave for school, a few more if she ran. She began working furiously, concentrating intently on her work. It barely registered when, several minutes later, she felt something going through her hair as Kuroko began brushing the messy strands.

"Honestly Onee-sama, for someone so beautiful to allow themselves such a slipshod appearance is such a waste. Kuroko will take care of it though," she said as she brushed Misaka's bedhead into its normal position and touched up her outfit in a few places. It was a bit distracting but Kuroko was careful not to get in the way too much as she straightened up Misaka's appearance, "also, if you want, you can have several extra minutes to do that. I can teleport us to school. It will be a bit tiring but I can do it with a little bit of… motivation."

Misaka paused for a second. It was an attractive prospect, with a little more time she could finish up her first hour's homework and then do her second hour's work during first hour and so on. But… "What kind of motivation?" she asked cautiously.

"What else? A kiss. And you have to be the one to kiss me. Don't worry though, you have all morning to figure it out, and besides, if you ask nicely then I'll probably do it either way," she said honestly, "I'd hate it if I had to force you to kiss me against your will. You could never put love or passion into that kind of kiss."

Misaka resumed her homework, grateful for Kuroko's offer and even more grateful that it didn't come with a price. She continued her work, being fed a small breakfast by her doting roommate who was more than happy to do the task. After around 20 or so minutes had passed, Kuroko spoke up. "We should probably get going now, or else we'll be late even with teleportation."

"Ok," Misaka said packing up. She had gotten quite a bit done, she might actually make this work. She got up and walked to Kuroko, who was waiting patiently for her, hand outstretched for her and ready to go when she was. She hesitated for a second mustering up her courage, then stepped up and gave her a quick peck on the cheek before taking the proffered hand.

Kuroko's smiled widely at the brief contact, ecstatic. Her teleportations were quick and successive and, though the act normally would have exhausted her, she found she was too happy to be tired out by it, her heart raced for a different reason.

Misaka got a little queasy, being unused to so many teleportations one after the other. She was glad when they finally arrived at the school gates. They still had five minutes to get to their respective classes. They were some of the last ones still left in the schoolyard and all the other students were currently funneling inside the schoolyard.

"Thanks," she said to Kuroko, suppressing her own queasiness.

"No problem Onee-sama, see you at lunch. And good luck," she replied rushing off to her class. Misaka went off to her own class as well, making it a minute before the bell rang. The class was abuzz with various conversations, no one even noticed when she walked in and sat down. Being a school she was used to people yammering on before class but this much chattering could only mean a big rumor was going around or an interesting piece of information just surfaced.

Misaka knew what it had to be about of course. The Queen and her, how they fought and how she had won. Of course it would be big news. Even though it was supposed to be a secret, The Queen had brought along some of her lackeys. Surely they were spreading horrible lies around the school this very moment. Misaka could practically feel the gazes upon her, the whispers that would slowly destroy her image. But Misaka would not bow to the pressure; she held her head up as high and proud as usual.

The teacher walked in and the talking immediately stopped as people hurried back to their desks as the bell rang. Misaka followed through with her plan, surreptitiously doing her homework as the teacher talked and lectured to the class. She was glad she had this teacher first hour; she was one of the few teachers who didn't care that they had "The Railgun" in her class. In many other classes she would often be called upon or used as an example. She was a prodigy, a paragon, a shining example of an ESPer. Her teachers knew this and monopolized it, using her as inspiration for her students to succeed ("If she can do it you can too?") or as reprimand for failure ("Misaka doesn't make excuses, she went from level one to level five so why can't you go from level three to level four").

Misaka didn't like it, never had. It separated her from her peers, she became a level five above all else. She was not a student, she was a prodigy. This made other students jealous, they didn't like the image that her fans cultivated for her, and thus assumed that they didn't like her either. In a school like the exclusive and renowned Tokiwadai, the students had been pampered and coddled from birth, always believing themselves to be special. It annoyed them that someone could be more special than them.

Thus people would either avoid her entirely or try and get close to her to advance their own reputation. It wouldn't work though; their reputation would suffer rather than build. Despite Misaka's put on amiability and kindness she was feared and disliked. Anyone who got close to her would suffer the same by proxy. Even worse because they would be seen as a yes man, brownnosing someone in power to try and get some of their own, they would be hated and they didn't have the veil of fear to protect them like Misaka had. It took someone stupidly arrogant, like Kongou Mitsuko, or stupidly brave, like Kuroko, to get close to her in this school.

She tried hard to spare people from this fate, acting friendly but distant, never allowing others too close. But despite all of her efforts she still found herself with a few friends… and a Kuroko, whatever she was to her. After such a long time being alone it had felt wonderful to make friends.

But now that they were her friends they would undoubtedly suffer from the same reputation nosedive as she was about to go through. Especially Kuroko, after what she had done to her fellow students.' It's probably a good thing she doesn't remember that.' Misaka thought to herself.

Before she knew it the bell had rung, announcing the end of first hour. It had been quite productive time, Misaka had managed to get all her second hour work done and had gotten a good portion of her third hour's done as well. As the teachers changed classrooms and they were given a short break the talking resumed. The girl next to Misaka leaned over to her and whispered, "hey did you hear the news?"

Misaka was a little taken aback. Why would she be asking her that? If anyone would know it would be her. She was about to answer when the girl continued, her eyes gleaming with the spirit of gossip and intrigue. "I hear The Queen dropped out suddenly. No one knows why, she just randomly transferred out during the vacation. Her faction has disbanded and the members are taken the loss pretty hard. Apparently she didn't even tell them she was leaving."

"Huh?" was Misaka's only response. Something wasn't right… it was like everyone had forgotten about what had happened. Suddenly it hit her. The Queen could control or wipe memories. She was too prideful to allow anyone to know that she had lost so she wiped the memories of her faction's involvement and just disappeared.

"The leading theory is that it's a guy. I guess even level 5's can still be head over heels," The other girl continued, oblivious to the fact that Misaka wasn't listening anymore as she blathered on about the various rumors she had heard up until the next bell rang.

The rest of the day proceeded regularly. Misaka was glad to have dodged that particular bullet but she still had a lingering worry. Her instincts told her that her troubles were just beginning. Soon it was time for lunch. She packed up her stuff, having finished all her homework by this time (After all, she was a bit of a prodigy, she could handle homework), and walked out the door.

Kuroko was waiting for her, obviously teleporting down here. Her nose was buried in a book. It was a big, hardcover thing with a very plain cover. She couldn't quite read the title though. When she heard Misaka approaching she looked up and smiled at her. "Hello Onee-sama, ready to go?"

She nodded in response and began walking down to the cafeteria with Kuroko leading the way. She noticed as she walked that the school was more restless than usual. She still felt the gazes falling upon her like she was being watched but… why? Could it be that peoples' memories weren't wiped? But then why wouldn't they be slandering her?

The answer came shortly after she had sat down to lunch when a student in the same year as her approached. "Hello," she said politely, "I represent the Akarichi Faction. We were wondering if you would consider joining us."

Before Misaka could decline the offer however another girl came up, "why in the world would you want to join them? Our faction is far better, you should join us."

Another girl came with a similar message, followed by two others. Quickly they were bickering among themselves while trying to sell themselves as the best to Misaka. It was a little overwhelming and Misaka found it increasingly difficult to stay calm. She tried to talk the people down but they would not listen, not only that but they were beginning to attract the attention of others.

"Interesting," Kuroko suddenly piped up in a casual voice, "did you know that a human femur will break under a mere one hundred pounds of pressure?" her casual voice gained an edge as she said that. She looked up at the bickering mob and smiled. But though she smiled her eyes were humorless, they chilled the girls as Kuroko put on a perfect imitation of Kuro's cold glare.

Misaka had her reputation to consider. She was polite and kind to everyone, she was very forgiving and humble for someone of her stature. To those who didn't know better she was calm, levelheaded and even-tempered. She could not simply frighten these people off.

Kuroko, however, could. She had forsaken her own reputation for her Onee-sama long ago. She was known as a frightening and slightly unstable girl who one did not wish to make angry. She had cultivated this persona, this reputation, when she had first become friends with her Onee-sama. She had known such an action had risks after all, she knew that people wouldn't approve of someone getting close to someone so powerful. They had tried to break her.

It was subtle, methodical, and slightly cliché. First they began shunning her; excluding her from clubs, social circles, and group activities. Then came the rumors. They would whisper behind her back, coming up with all sorts of stories about her, calling her vile names and accusing her of terrible things. Then came the more overt bullying, the pranks and the insults that came directly to her face. She was isolated and ridiculed but it didn't matter. She still had friends after all: Uiharu, Kuro, and of course her lovely Onee-sama. She didn't need these snobby rich girls as friends and frankly wasn't too bothered by their actions.

One day however they finally piled on the straw that broke the camel's back. A girl from her class had been insulting her for the past couple minutes, though she wasn't really listening, too busy working. Then she heard something she could not allow to go unpunished, an insult against her precious Onee-sama. "I guess The Railgun must be really pathetic to be friends with someone as lowly as you."

She stopped working for a second and looked at the girl. She had a smug look, finally having got a reaction out of the girl who had been ignoring her. She looked at Kuroko beneath the rim of her glasses as she got ready to continue the tirade. Suddenly a pencil appeared before her eyes. It stayed there for a millisecond before falling to the ground alongside her glasses, now split neatly in half at the bridge.

"It does not pay to make someone angry when they can turn anything into a lethal weapon," Kuroko said casually taking out another pencil and continuing with her work as if nothing happened.

After that people continued to give her a wide berth, albeit for an entirely different reason. Her little stunt made people afraid of her. They became convinced she was dangerous and insane. _And they don't even know about your borderline multiple personality disorder._ Ever since then nobody had really bothered her, she was allowed to be her Onee-sama's friend in peace, a right she believed she deserved. She didn't care what anyone else thought of her; as long as she was near her Onee-sama everyone else in the world could hate her for all she cared. And at times such as these, this reputation came in handy.

She watched as the five girls backed down and scattered under her icy scrutiny. "Kuroko…" she heard the worried voice of Misaka from beside her, "what was that all about."

She turned to her and smiled, pushing her book and pointing to a sentence. "Just sharing an interesting fact I came across in my reading." She said innocently.

Misaka looked. It seemed she was reading a medical textbook and indeed it did talk about the breaking strength of the various bones in the human body…but… "This says 700 pounds of force, not 100."

"Oh? I guess I must have read it wrong, Arabic numbers are so confusing sometimes aren't they?"

"Yeah, I guess," Misaka said. The statement still disturbed her but it had disbanded the annoying group of bickering girls.

It was odd though, they had been talking about her joining their factions. As a level five she had gotten many similar offers when she first joined the school but she had declined them all. Since then nobody really asked her anymore, knowing their offer would be refused. Something had changed.

"Hey Misaka-senpai, Hey Kuroko-san."

Misaka turned, "Hey Mitsuko-san, Maaya-san, Kinuho-san," she said to the three as they sat down.

"You've heard the big news right? About The Queen's disappearance?" Maaya asked.

"Yeah… I heard."

"The whole school's gone crazy I tell you. With The Queen's faction disbanded the others are moving to fill the gap,we've been asked to join three separate factions since I came in this morning." Kinuho said, sounding exasperated.

"That's nothing, I've been asked by seven different factions. Of course that is to be expected, after all, what kind of club would it be if Kongou Mitsuko was not a member?" Mitsuko asked in her usually arrogant tone.

"I bet you've been horded eh? We saw like five different people here before, pretty impressive for all at once, even for a level 5." Maaya said sympathetically.

"Hey, did you hear about that one faction? STORM I think they call themselves. They're one of the biggest factions and they're really taking advantage of this. Their leader is a second year. A level four ESPer called Yashinko Honogun or something like that." Kinuho said.

"Yeah I heard about them," Maaya continued, "apparently they're a pretty good faction to join. Yashinko's father is pretty well connected and she's allowed to use several of his facilities for club training."

They continued talking for a bit, Misaka listened intently. She usually didn't care about the whole faction scene but now, with all this recent activity, she found herself curious.

"Excuse me for a moment," Kuroko suddenly said politely before standing up and teleporting away.

She teleported outside and took out her cell phone. As she as she heard the name she had a feeling that she knew it from somewhere, Kuro had reminded her. Now she just needed to make sure.

She scrolled down her short contact list until she found the most recent addition. She selected the number and began typing out a text.

"Hey Birdy, It's Kuroko, from yesterday. I hope I'm not interrupting you but I had a little question. I was wondering if you were familiar with the name Yashinko Honogun?"

She waited a minute or so before a response came through.

"Yeah I've heard of her. She's the daughter of the head of the Honogun crime family. She goes to some big rich girls' school. Her tuition is practically paid in blood money. Quite dangerous from what I hear. She's as wily as her father, willing to do whatever it takes to get what she wants. Never met her in person though so I can't say for sure. That help?"

_Thought so. It seems they are related._

"Very much. Thank you. Sorry to disturb you for such a random question, but I appreciate the answer." She typed in response before sending.

"No problem, anytime."

She smiled before closing her cell phone and putting it in her pocket.

_It seems your new friendship is already paying dividends. This information could be useful blackmail if necessary._

"Do you ever have pleasant thoughts? Thoughts that don't involve using everyone and everything as tools for your own advantage."

_My thoughts revolve around using them to your advantage, not my own. But no, I think rationally, I don't have time to waste thinking about things just to make me happy. I don't even have the emotions necessary to feel happy._

"Yeah, I know. Thanks for always looking out for me, keep up the good work." She praised Kuro as she headed back to lunch.

"Welcome back Kuroko," said one of Mitsuko's pair of lackeys as she returned.

"What was all that about?" asked Misaka, fixing her with a curious gaze.

She sat next to her again. "Bathroom," she said simply as she put away her book and got another one out of her bag.

"Hey, Kuroko, have you been bugged to join any factions yet?"

"Nope," she replied before leaning over and grabbing hold of Misaka's arm. "My only allegiance is to Onee-sama."

Kinuho and Maaya recalled the time they had walked in to see Misaka practically torturing Kuroko with electric shocks in the pool. Yet even after that she was still so loyal… 'Weirdo,' the two girls thought in unison. Though they could at least admire that kind of loyalty to her friendship.

"Plus my work with Judgment would be hampered if I were to join a club or faction or whatever." She added as an afterthought, still clinging to Misaka's arm. Misaka sported a light blush but supposed that this was in the realm of what friends would do, or at least what Kuroko would do and she would normally allow. So she let it slide until lunch ended.

When the bell finally rang Misaka said goodbye to her friends and walked back to her class, escorted by Kuroko like a clingy puppy… who also happened to be a vicious guarddog. Misaka knew of Kuroko's less than positive reputation, and though she tried to defend her at first Kuroko had told her not to waste her breath. She had assured her Onee-sama that she was fine with having such a poor reputation, saying it was less troublesome than how she had been treated before.

That statement always shut Misaka up. She felt guilty for how her friends were treated because of her. She didn't want anybody to suffer, especially those close to her. But Kuroko had never cared about the suffering she had to endure, willing to put up with anything so long as she could be by her side.

They soon arrived at her class. "See you after school Onee-sama," Kuroko said with a smile before dashing off to make it to her own class on time.

Misaka watched her leave before she walked into her own class. 'It seems no matter what I can't escape the consequences of my actions,' she thought to herself as she went to her desk.

Misaka had a gift for attracting trouble.

* * *

Author's Note: You wouldn't believe how hard this chapter was to write. I can handle putting the characters in new and interesting environments but it is so hard for me to put them in an old one that I don't know much about. I tried to do as much research as I could but there just wasn't much information available on life in Tokiwadai. Most of it ended up being introspection on their stations in school and I ended up basing my perception of it off of another fan's work (Cun's "A Certain Destined Introduction") rather than on canon sources. Because of this I would welcome my readers to point out any misinformation or plot holes that exist so I can improve these types of chapters in the future (they are students, several plot points will happen in school).


	11. Toaru Heiwa no Yugata

Toaru Heiwa no Yugata

A Certain Evening of Peace

* * *

The school day ended and the final bell rang. Misaka had no more problems, at least none that she wasn't used to. She left class as usual and as usual Kuroko was waiting for her, nose still in her books though as soon as she saw Misaka she put it away and smiled at her. After that they walked out of the school together, exchanging pleasantries and talking about their respective days.

After they drew away from the school building, however, Kuroko gave her a wry grin. "I don't have any Judgment work today or tomorrow. So how about tomorrow we meet up with Saten and Uiharu and all have some fun together?"

"Sounds good," Misaka replied.

"Today, however, I can finally spend a little time alone with Onee-sama. If you don't have any other plans how about we go on a date?"

Misaka stopped in her tracks, "Kuroko," she practically hissed, blushing and looking around to make sure no one had heard, "we're supposed to keep this secret for now. Remember?"

"Sorry, my mistake. Well then, how about we go out together to a movie and do some shopping?" She amended.

"That would be fine," Misaka said, glad that Kuroko didn't argue or pout about her refusal. She just wasn't ready for such a public display yet.

"That would be fine and yet it's the same thing we would have done anyway," Kuroko informed her casually, "date is just a word; you don't need to be so frightened by it."

"I'm not scared," Misaka roared, "It's just that not everyone has such an easy time labeling things as you." She stormed off.

Kuroko sighed gently. _I don't know why you're wasting so much time on this._

"It's because I know what she's like," she replied quietly, "all her life she has had her power and intelligence to protect her. She could solve any problem with a sufficient amount of perseverance, hard work, brains or application of enough volts to cause a small blackout. But this is a matter of the heart. It is a matter that no amount of hard work, logic or electricity can solve. And that scares her, but her persistence and stubbornness prevents her from just giving up on this, no matter how much it scares her."

_You are annoyed by this._

"I'm not annoyed at all that she is like this, it's part of who she is and I love her unconditionally. But yes, this pace annoys me to no end. After months of pining and hard work to get her to look at me as more than a friend it's taking all my self-control to keep myself from just making out with her right now in the middle of the street. It feels like paradise is a step away but I'm being held back. If I try to take the next step alone the whole staircase would just shatter beneath me but the person I need to take with me is just starting to climb and is treating every step like it's rigged with a landmine."

_I am unable to see any rational reason for this behavior of yours._

"That's because there isn't a rational reason. It's because I love her. I've been waiting for so long for her to even try to climb the staircase with me, so I'm willing to wait a little while longer. I'm willing to walk away from paradise and lead her up step by step, no matter how slow it is."

_I will never understand that kind of reasoning or your infatuation with that pereskia. But I do understand that it makes you… happy, content, pleased. Whatever you call it, your mind is at peace. So whether I understand it or not I'll always be here for you Shiro._

"Good. Now for our date."

_I thought she stormed off._

"Come now Kuro, you and I both know where she is." Kuroko said before heading off to the place that the fuming Misaka would be sure to go.

There were few things that Misaka could ever truly rely on other than herself. Even though she had plenty of friends there were some things she couldn't rely on them for. She was a level five after all, there were few things a level five could not accomplish, and of those few things there were a miniscule amount that could be accomplished by someone else. But this was one thing she could not do herself. She had entrusted the task to various people throughout her life but this remained the single most reliable. It would not wander around the city, it would accept the task without any complaint, and it had been there for her throughout the years.

It was her ever faithful punching bag, vending machine #7116. "CHASER!" she announced in a battle cry as she spun around and kicked the machine downward at a forty five degree angle. A dull thud echoed through it as a pomegranate cola dropped down into the receptacle. She snatched it up and chugged it down, hardly appearing the high class Ouja-sama that some people thought.

Ever since last year this machine had regularly been receiving her abuse, and yet each time she kicked it it would just dispense another drink, as if rewarding her for her violence and abuse. It would always be in this one place, unlike her spiky haired punching bag, and she would never feel bad for hurting it, unlike her punching bag turned…

'Damn.' She thought, crushing the empty can in her fist, 'I am afraid, I'm afraid of a god damn word.' She was afraid because, to her, it was more than a word. It was a meaning. A date was different than hanging out with your friend. A friend was different than a girlfriend. And once a name, a meaning, was assigned, it could not be taken back easily.

She spun around again and kicked the machine, another can dropped down. She sighed as she picked it up.

"Really Onee-sama… you're still wearing those horrible shorts?"

She turned to Kuroko and shot her a glare, "as I recall they saved our lives." She attempted to sound bitter as she said it, but she realized what she was saying halfway through the sentence and the rest sounded as if she was trying to stifle a laugh.

Kuroko chuckled, "That was a pretty odd situation though. I don't care to pin my every day survival on the hope that your shorts will come to the rescue."

"They still function as a shield from the eyes of perverts like you."

"So is not kicking vending machines."

It was an age old argument, one they had had several times before. But it didn't make Misaka angry this time. Now it was something familiar, something that hadn't changed even if their relationship had. She looked at Kuroko for a second then tossed her the soda she had in her hand, a silent 'I'm sorry'.

Kuroko caught it deftly, opening it and taking a sip. She smiled, "thank you Onee-sama, though next time I'd prefer something you bought honestly," She teased her.

"Shut up and drink," Misaka said, more affectionately than angry, as she sat down on the nearby bench. Kuroko sat next to her. The two were silent as Kuroko finished up the can of soda, then she stood up.

"Now what do you say we head to that movie?" she said hand outstretched to Misaka as she teleported the can into the recycling bin.

Misaka looked up at her not accepting the hand quite yet, "as friends?" she asked.

Kuroko looked deep into her eyes, "where there is understanding one does not need words," she said.

Misaka raised an eyebrow at her, "Smartass," she said, but she took her hand nonetheless.

Kuroko helped Misaka up and, still holding her hand, began dragging her off to the movie theatre. When Misaka began following and keeping up she instead clung to her arm, a, somewhat ironically, less unusual arrangement for the two of them to be in. "it's our privilege as girls," she remarked, "to be so close to another girl without any strange looks."

"Totally. We get absolutely no strange looks when you suddenly hop on my lap in a crowded restaurant." Misaka responded sarcastically.

"No, but perhaps if I had done it more subtly nobody would have noticed or cared."

"Now if only the word subtle was in your dictionary," Misaka snarked, covering up her embarrassment with these somewhat gentle jabs and barbs.

_Pereskia calling the rose thorny._

"Subtlety is for things you want to keep secret. I proudly declare my love for you and I always will. If it makes you uncomfortable then I'll work on the timing of it, but I'll still do it." Kuroko informed her matter-of-factly.

Misaka blushed. She still wasn't sure if she should be flattered or annoyed by such bold declarations. "What movie are we watching," she asked, trying to change the subject as they drew close to the cinema.

"Perhaps a romance? To get us in the mood? "Kuroko said half-serious, half-teasing as they arrived, "Or whatever you'd like to watch. Pick something you'd enjoy, I'm happy just being here with you."

Misaka turned to the movie listings, suddenly finding them very interesting as she hid her blush. There were a couple different action movies but she ruled them out. 'Too much like real life for my tastes.' There was a drama but she dismissed that as well. 'I'd prefer something a little more lighthearted.' Then there was a child's film but she had already seen that twice, besides Kuroko would likely ridicule her if she chose that.

So she settled on a romantic comedy. Kuroko went off to buy the tickets, though Misaka had offered to buy her own Kuroko had insisted that she was the one to pay, "I was the one to invite you out after all," she reasoned.

After that they went to their theatre and got seats somewhere near the middle. The movie began soon after that and the two watched. To Misaka's surprise Kuroko did nothing more than hold her hand throughout the movie. It felt a bit… weird not having her perverted attentions on her in full force but she was more relieved than disappointed.

After the movie was over they left the theatre. It was getting late but they still had more than an hour before they would need to be getting back home. So they began walking to the shopping mall nearby. On the way Misaka asked, "how did you like the movie?"

Kuroko looked thoughtful for a second before responding, "I feel a bit envious."

"Huh?"

"They had a relationship hindered only by misunderstandings and their own idiocy. Things like that can be seen pas easily. Misunderstandings can be cleared up and even the most blind can be made to see. I wish things were that easy in real life. I wish a happy ending was just a series of silly events away." She said, a hint of sadness in her voice.

Misaka stopped and looked at her. She looked for the words she could use to console her, but she struggled to find them. She reached up and patted Kuroko on the head with her free hand and said the only thing she could think of, the thing that consoled her when she was having trouble. "We have longer than an hour and a half to figure this out though."

Kuroko looked at her, her eyes still sad but she put up a fake smile anyway, "yeah, I guess. Thanks."

After that, things went back to normal as they window shopped for an hour or so, appearing for all the world as two friends and nothing more. Kuroko was careful to be on her best behavior, though still stick close to Misaka. After all, if she could prove they could be out and close without her going too far then she was more likely to agree to this in the future. It was a simple matter to control herself and Misaka seemed to appreciate the effort.

When the sky started to darken they made their way back to the dorms, making it back half an hour before curfew. As they walked into their room and closed the door Kuroko tugged on her arm.

"Thanks Onee-sama," she said, "I had fun today, thanks for coming with me."

Misaka smiled back, "it was my pleasure, it's been too long since we've been able to do this kind of thing."

"You know what they say. 'Every peaceful day is a miracle to be treasured'. Even more so for us. Then again it does keep things from getting boring I suppose."

"With you things don't get boring that easily," Misaka murmured

Kuroko leaned up and kissed her passionately, "what was that?" she said in a seductive purr as she pulled away, "you say I excite you?" She took a step forward, effectively pinning the deeply blushing and frozen Misaka to the wall.

Misaka's breath caught in her throat as Kuroko once again utterly dominated her with her aggressiveness. She felt herself clench up as her heart raced in her chest and her stomach filled with butterflies Then Kuroko leaned her head against Misaka, as she transitioned from aggressive to a pensive restraint in an instant. She pressed her body against Misaka's, though she clung as if for comfort rather than perverted lust.

"I'm sorry Onee-sama… I forgot myself…" she said apologetically, holding on for a few more seconds before letting go and walking over to her desk to begin on her homework.

Misaka stood there for a minute as her heartbeat went back to a normal rate and she stopped shaking. Her head felt heavy and foggy. She felt like…

She tried to calm down and begin her own homework but the feeling lingered . Her progress was slow and she wasn't done until much later than she usually was. Kuroko had finished a while ago and was now reading her books. When Misaka finally finished she was tired and ready to go to bed, as was Kuroko. So the two got changed.

Kuroko began walking to her own bed but Misaka reached out and put a hand on her arm, causing her to stop and turn. She was blushing and averting her eyes. Her mouth opened but no words formed.

They didn't need to… Kuroko understood. "You're concerned about my nightmares?" she said acting oblivious and providing Misaka with a convenient excuse, "would it bother you if I slept with you again?" she said in a pleading voice with big eyes and a pout to match.

"Uhh… not really… I mean if it helps you…" she stammered, feeling more than a little relieved.

"Thank you Onee-sama," Kuroko beamed. She waited as Misaka climbed into her bed then joined her.

She wouldn't tell her but it put Misaka at ease to have the other girl beside her. She had rarely slept more soundly than she had the past couple days with Kuroko clinging to her…

'No,' she thought to herself, 'it's just a word, just a title. I will not be scared.'

"Good night Onee-sama," Kuroko said happily

"Good night," Misaka said to her girlfriend.

* * *

Author's note: Just a light, frivolous, happy chapter. It's been a while since I've focused on the romance of these two and usually it's been full of angst and drama. So I just wanted a casual little bit of light romance. I even managed to sneak some development in there so… bonus points!

The next chapters a bit… different from this one, so be sure to enjoy the light spirited reading while you can.


	12. Toaru Odoroki no Insho

Toaru Odoroki no Insho

A Certain Jarring Impression

* * *

Misaka woke up to the high pitched beeping of her alarm clock, announcing the beginning of yet another school day. From her place, face down and buried in her pillow, she fumbled for the alarm clock, finally finding it and shutting the infernal contraption off.

As she began to wake up she noticed something was amiss. It took her a minute but she soon realized that Kuroko wasn't there. She picked her head up from her pillow and looked around. She saw her sitting at her desk, fully changed and prepared, teleporting a needle around a piece of notebook paper in a quick, precise manner.

"Kuroko?" she asked as she picked herself up.

Kuroko turned around when she heard her name. She gave Misaka a big smile, "Good morning Onee-sama." she said.

"What are you doing?"

"Practicing," she explained, "My accuracy is a little off so I'm trying to improve.

Misaka nodded, understanding her drive for improvement. "How long have you been up?"

"A couple of hours I suppose," _Ever since you were shocked by that pereskia in the middle of the night._

"mmn," Misaka grunted in response before yawning widely and standing up.

"By the way Onee-sama, what were you dreaming about?"

Misaka looked at her curiously, "I don't really remember. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, no reason in particular. When I woke up you looked really happy for some reason."

she shrugged in response and began to get ready. She could actually take her time this morning, having finished her homework last night. So she grabbed her uniform and went into the bathroom.

With her Onee-sama in the bathroom Kuroko relaxed and took another look at the book she had been studying. "Despite what you say it is still quite dangerous. I'm not even sure if it will work and if I'm off by even a centimeter the damage could be permanent." she continued the discussion she had been having with Kuro before the alarm clock went off.

_You're looking for the quickest, most efficient way of disabling hostiles. This is it, plain and simple. It might not be the safest way but there are alternatives._

"Yeah. Having a needle through just about any joint would pretty effectively disable it while only leaving a miniscule injury."

_ It's the same principle with the human body as it is with buildings. All a matter of striking at the weakest or most vital points. After all, with a small scale power like yours you can't hope to destroy much with brute force alone._

"I know that. Why do you think I've been pouring through biological textbooks during every second of free time."

_I thought it had something to do with why you keep lingering on the female biology sections._

The most annoying thing about a friend like Kuro was that she was privy to every secret hobby, perversion, and desire that Kuroko had ever indulged in. Kuro was generally uninterested in such matters and never spoke of them, but sometimes she would do things like this that made Kuroko wish she could just find a mute button.

"Shut up," she responded meekly before standing up and getting on with her other business of the morning.

When Misaka exited the bathroom she smelled a wonderful aroma wafting from the kitchen. It was the smell of home cooking. The pops and hisses of the frying pan radiated throughout the room, accompanying the warm air and giving a wonderful atmosphere to the place. She wandered over to the kitchen. "Hey, Kuroko. Are you making brea-gggh..."She started, only to be left suddenly speechless by the spectacle before her.

Kuroko was standing in front of the stove, tending to the various dishes she had made the preparations for after she had woken up. She had on an apron but nothing else. She turned to Misaka, smiling. "Ah, Onee-sama. Breakfast will be ready soon so just wait a little bit longer."

Misaka's brain had a small short as her eyes widened and a blush lit up her face. "p-p-p-p-p-PUT SOME DAMN CLOTHES ON." she yelled, turning around and storming off.

Kuroko watched her go with a grin. _Now will you tell me what that was all about?_

"it's all about my useless perusing of the female biology books," she murmured, continuing her cooking, "The difference between friends and lovers is attraction. Therefore, to see whether or not she was attracted to me, I presented her with a provocative image and then looked for any signs of excitement or attraction."

_ Finally you are making sense. Logic is something I can handle. Who needs empathy when you can look for biological indicators of emotion._

"Your approval fills me with shame," she said as she finished the omelets and served them as well as the various other pieces of food into two bento boxes and two plates. She had gone for taste rather than aesthetics but still tried to arrange them in an attractive manner in the box before tying it up in a cute, albeit somewhat childish in her opinion, handkerchief. Then she did the same with hers. After that she brought everything to the table. Misaka was sitting on her bed, facing in the opposite direction.

Seeing her like that Kuroko decided that she had teased her enough for one morning and got dressed. After that she called Misaka to the table and the two ate.

It was somewhat awkward for the rest of the morning, Misaka found herself unable to look her in the eyes as they ate their delicious breakfast in silence.

It continued until they left for school and even then she found herself trailing behind Kuroko, looking down at the ground.

_I think you broke her._

"Broken bones mend with even greater strength." she said under her breath. Then, realizing what she had said, she quickly added, "that was a metaphor, don't go breaking any more bones ok?"

'Calm down Misaka,' the other girl told herself as she struggled to slow her heartbeat down to normal levels, 'It's just Kuroko... you've seen her naked before.'

Then why was it so jarring now? And why, every time she looked at her now, would she recall the image of her in that damn apron?

She took another deep breath as she tried to erase the memory from her mind. 'damn that Kuroko and her incessant teasing. Why the hell did she go and do that?' However she was interrupted from this train of thought by their arrival at Tokiwadai and their subsequent parting as they left to their respective classes.

Despite her odd morning, Misaka's day went exactly how it usually did. With the exception of being the target of more recruiting attempts by more factions, including one that she had already said no to asking her if she had changed her mind. She tried her best to get them to go away but that didn't work. So she simply ignored them until the bell rang, letting them battle amongst themselves.

After that she wasn't bothered anymore for a while, the time between classes too short for a faction recruiter to make a decent pitch. The lessons also helped distract her from her thoughts of a certain annoying brat who had so shaken her this morning.

She couldn't avoid her forever though, and the lunch bell soon rang. Misaka collected herself, readying herself to face Kuroko again as she left. However she saw that Kuroko wasn't waiting for her like usual. Misaka wasn't sure whether to feel relieved, disappointed, or worried. But after a second she settled on the first, glad to have the unpleasant encounter delayed, however temporarily.

She made her way to the lunchroom on her own and sat down at an empty table. It was fairly quite but Misaka knew it wouldn't be long before they descended over her like vultures.

Indeed, before even a minute had passed she was approached by a group of three. Though this time there was something different. The two seemed more like an entourage than people from other factions. The girl in front walked with a proud, confident air. Chin held high, steps long and confident, posture straight and impeccable. The girl on her left side fed like leech off of her presence, projecting a false air of confidence and station. The girl on her right seemed more timid and intimidated than anything else. She tried to keep to the shadows like a shy kid forced by their parent to socialize.

The lunchroom went oddly quiet as the girl sat across from her and began speaking, "Misaka Mikoto right? I'm Yoshinko Honogun. I hear you've been having some problems with the factions recently and I'd like to help. Join STORM and I can get them to leave you alone, I can get you anything you want. Just join my faction and we could the most powerful people in the school."

"I don't think so, sorry," she refused absentmindedly, having stopped listening long ago. 'This lunch is actually really good... I wonder where Kuroko learned to cook like this?' She thought to herself, the delicious bento ranking far above this Storm person in importance.

"How long do you think you can keep refusing everybody? You are now the only level five in the school. The faction that has you in it will become a powerful one indeed. People are going to do whatever is necessary to get you to join them. Join with STORM and we can protect you, don't and who knows what may happen."

Even though she was mostly ignoring her, Misaka could hear the threat in those words. Misaka did not like it when people threatened others. She liked it even less when people threatened her. Her smile began to falter ans she gripped her chopsticks tight enough to turn her knuckles white.

"STORM eh? Then you're Honogun-san. Tell me... how's your father doing? Is the "delivery" business going well?" Kuroko said, seemingly appearing out of nowhere as she sat next to Misaka, who, along with Yoshinko's entourage, looked at her strangely. But Yoshinko herself seemed to understand. Her eyes widened and her hands clenched into fists.

"Who are you and what are you talking about?" the girl to Yoshinko's left asked.

"Oh you didn't know? You see..." She began explaining with a grin.

"Rya! Kazege! We're going. Now!" Yoshinko said, standing up and storming away, the two confused girls on her tail.

Misaka looked at Kuroko, "what was that all about?" she asked, curious why what Kuroko had said had gotten such a strong reaction out of the girl.

"Oh, that." Kuroko said quietly and casually, getting out her bento, "I guess she just realized the damage her reputation could suffer if people found out her father is a notorious crime-boss."

"Are you... serious?" Misaka asked. It wasn't like Kuroko to joke about something like that but... it was kind of... unbelievable.

"Yep. Found out about it while I was doing some work. No proof though, so I can't exactly go to Anti-skill with the information," Kuroko explained, "itadikamsu."

Every day Kuroko managed to surprise and confuse Misaka in entirely new ways. 'what next, a twin and a fiance[1]?' She rolled her eyes, "so why are you so late?" she asked instead of the myriad of other questions running through her mind that would just raise more questions if they were answered.

"Sorry about that," she apologized after finishing her mouthful of food, "I was helping a teacher out. Apparently being a teleporter makes you the designated person to fetch and deliver anything and everything that the class needs."

"I know what you mean, being the level five means I'm always used in class demonstrations and things like that." Misaka sympathized.

"Well you are Tokiwadai's ace. You're inspirational and a good role model."

"Why do I feel like there's a but here?"

"Of course there's a but, but I'm not going to say it because it would just upset you."

"That never stopped you before," Misaka rebutted, happy for, but a bit suspicious about, Kuroko's words.

She simply shrugged in response then changed the subject to more lighthearted matters as they spent the rest of lunch talking about nothing in particular, like good old times. All the awkwardness from this morning forgotten.

Misaka wasn't too worried about Yoshinko's threat. She was level five, she had fought tougher opponents than some crime-boss's daughter with a chip on her shoulders. She was confident, as always, that she could protect herself.

So she put it in the back of her mind as the lunch bell rang and they went back to class. For the rest of the day nothing happened. The bell rang at the usual time and Kuroko was waiting in the usual place.

"We don't need to meet up with Saten and Uiharu for a while," Misaka said, "so let's head to the dorm first and drop off our books and things."

Kuroko agreed and they stopped to drop off their stuff then left. Before they left the dorms however Kuroko said she forgot something and hurried back in, coming out a short while later. Then they began walking towards the designated meeting spot.

_I can understand not having it with you at school but I'll be damned if you're going to let it go to waste by never carrying the thing around. You need to keep your end of the bargain if you expect me to keep up mine._

'I know. That's why I went and got it.' She thought loudly, though she knew Kuro wouldn't hear her. They still knew each other well enough that they could guess each other's thoughts for the most part.

They soon arrived at the park where the other two were already waiting. Saten was waving at them as she greeted them in her loud, excited voice. "Yo! Kuroko! Misaka!"

"Hey there," Misaka greeted as they drew close, "sorry we're late."

"Oh it's no problem, we just got here," Uiharu explained, "so what are we going to do today?"

"Well," Kuroko spoke up, "I never did get you that ice cream I promised you, so why don't we go and get some now. My treat."

The idea was met with approval and they started walking towards an ice cream shop that was close by

"Oh by the way, is it true? The rumor that the queen has left Tokiwadai?" Saten asked, looking at Misaka and Kuroko.

"Uh... well yeah. Though apparently it's a big mystery why?' Misaka said, slightly nervous.

"You don't know either?" Saten looked disappointed when she heard this, "I was hoping that my sources on the inside would know more."

"I don't know why people care so much. I mean just because she's a level five automatically means anything she does is important? She's an unpleasant person unworthy of the attention." Kuroko said, her voice tinted with caustic spite, "at least Onee-sama is a good person. She's a worthy role model. The Queen is hardly someone to look up to."

The others turned and looked at her. "Wow... you sound like she did something horrible to you. Is there bad blood between you?"

"Well... not exactly..." Kuroko lied.

"As always you seem to have no trouble speaking ill of people you don't know," Uiharu said, with something like disapproval in her voice, "If I remember correctly you said something similar about Misaka-san before you went into Tokiwadai."

"Oh?" Misaka said, interest piqued, "did you now?"

"yep," Kuroko admitted immediately, "Before I met you I thought you were a pompous, high-class snob."

Her blunt honesty shocked the others, never expecting to hear such antagonistic words about Misaka come from Kuroko's mouth.

"I know what you mean," said Saten, "Before I met her I thought the same. But when I did meet her she turned out to be really cool and nice. I'm glad Uiharu dragged me along to meet you two."

"you certainly had a better first meeting than us," Kuroko said.

"Yeah... I remember. You tried arresting me didn't you?" Misaka recalled, annoyance in her voice at the memory.

"Yep," Kuroko said smiling at her.

"Our first meeting wasn't much better," Uiharu said gesturing to Saten, "she flipped my skirt and made me her friend without my permission."

"Yellow with purple flowers," Saten recalled, leaving Uiharu with a blush

Misaka smiled as she listened to all these tales of the past, "I guess it goes to show," she began, "the best of friends can come from the worst of first impressions."

After that conversation drew to a close they began talking about other things. Rumors, stories, gossip, the usual as they took a shortcut to the ice cream place. They went through an empty plaza that sat in the middle of several buildings. It used to be a popular place but now it was rarely used other than as a shortcut to avoid traffic or as a hangout for various groups of delinquents.

Today, unfortunately, it looked as if it was being used for the latter of the two. A group of five people, two females three males, were sitting 20 feet away from them on a bench near the center where a tall oak tree grew, bathing them in shade.

One of the people stood up. He was in a light, sleeveless green t-shirt and heavy tan cargo pants. His dark hair was shaved in a buzz cut. His rough, tan skin was marked with scars. He bore himself with confidence and pride and his grin was that of a predator's. "Oi, you. You're The Railgun right? Misawa Mita-something or other."

"Who's asking," she replied aggressively. She had a bad feeling about this. Given the way the others tensed up, it looked like they did too.

The man tutted, "tsk tsk. That's not very polite you know." he said. Suddenly a blinding pain erupted all over the bodies of the four girls. Every single nerve in their bodies felt like it was suddenly lit on fire. It hurt more than any of them could imagine. The shock and pain almost immediately knocked Uiharu unconscious and brought the other three to their knees as they struggled to keep their own faculties.

The man approached as the others stood up, hanging back for now but ready if necessary. "Since you asked though, I'll tell you. My name is Ita, my power is causing hyper-stimulation in a person's nerve endings, or in layman's terms, causing them excruciating pain. I've been hired to frighten you a little bit. Lucky for you I need to keep you alive. Though they didn't say anything about keeping your little friends here alive... maybe I'll have a little fun." He said tauntingly as he stood in front of her and Kuroko.

Misaka glared at him and tried to summon up enough power to fry him. But the pain was too much. She couldn't concentrate at all. Concentration was necessary for all ESPer's powers. Without the concentration to do all the complex equations necessary to make their powers work they couldn't do anything.

Suddenly a small black object bounced across the ground emitting small, short beeps that got louder and quicker as it rolled stopping just short of the other four people who looked at it curiously. Misaka's eyes were suddenly covered by Kuroko's hand as the object let out one last beep. Through her hand she could see a flash of light followed by a chorus of "ach!" "damn!" "what the hell?" "I can't see!"

When she heard the beeping stop Kuro looked up, removing her hand from in front of the perseskia's eyes. Then she leapt forward and swung her left arm, hitting this Ita person directly in the stomach. Then she pressed the button on the device she was holding with her thumb sending several thousand volts into him. The shock, added to the impact, caused him to stumbled back a couple of steps as she stood tall, hair falling freely down to back.

"_How does it feel when the one in pain is you?"_ she asked as she retrieved something from beneath her shirt. In each hand she now held the sleek chrome-tinted metal tonfa that Shiro had purchased, along with the flash grenade she had just thrown, 2 days ago at the black market stand.

They were prototype sidearms for law enforcement agencies, designed to replace the primitive, low-tech nightstick with a multipurpose weapon and tool. It had along it's side handle four buttons that would trigger various mechanisms when the fingers were removed from it in various combinations and the button at the end of the handle was pressed by the thumb. Right now Kuro was gripping with all of her fingers save her pinky, activating it's most basic function, a stun gun built into the base of the short end.

In exchange for these fun little toys Kuro had promised that she would minimize the damage she caused to other people whenever she stepped in to fight. These were specially designed to take down opponents without causing too much harm, so they were the perfect tools for the job. She would have this Ita guy and his thugs finished off in no time.

"How does it feel?" Ita repeated as he regained balance and looked up at her, his expression was not one of anger or pain, but one of enjoyment and blood lust, "I'd say it feels pretty damn good. Come on now little girl... let's see what else you got." He reached behind his back and in the blink of an eye he swung his arm forward, sending his signature cat-o-nine-tails whip across Kuro's torso before she had a chance to react.

Five of the cords hit, digging thin, deep, biting wounds and tearing thin gashes in her shirt and blazer. The wounds burned like a hot iron and when combined with the crippling pain she was already feeling she almost faltered before catching herself and launching herself once again at him, making sure to stay close to avoid another hit.

"Hurts doesn't it? A whip is the most painful weapon of all, and a cat-o-nine-tails is the most painful whip there is. That's why I chose it. Pain is the ultimate rush, the ultimate thrill. Doesn't matter who's giving and whose receiving, as long as someone is in pain, as long as someone is screaming and hurting like there is no tomorrow, I'll be happy. I'm impressed you lasted this long though, I'll tell you that. Most people can't even stand. But then again I am keeping pressure on three different people so don't be too proud of yourself."

As he was talking she launched hit after hit against him but the pain hindered her, made her attacks clumsy and weak. He skillfully dodged, ducking and weaving around her blows. Those few that hit were absorbed, even enjoyed as he laughed and encouraged her to hit him harder.

Kuro was unfazed by the taunts, too embroiled in the task of defeating him quickly before his friends regained their ability to see or she was knocked out by the pain.

"Too slow," he said as she swung. He ducked under the blow and rolled behind her. Kuro quickly spun around to prevent being attacked from behind but he had distance now and he swung his cat-o-nine-tails with power straight at her. She attempted to block it with her tonfa but it simply twisted around, striking her hard across the back, cutting her deeply in six more places.  
This time Kuro did falter. Her vision blurred and blackened she felt herself falling.

"Feel the pain and cry you little brat," he taunted.

At his words Kuro caught herself. She couldn't go down like this, she couldn't let Shiro down. She twisted her tonfa around, winding the whip around the handle and holding it in place. She released the button under the middle finger on her other hand and pressed the activation button with her thumb, triggering one of the non-standard mechanisms that had been added by the underground. A thin, sharp blade popped out from the seam that ran along the length of the long end of the shaft. With a single quick motion she swung the baton and sliced through the whip, severing the cord and letting it drop to the ground.

Now, holding nothing more than a handle, Ita dropped the useless whip. "I don't need that to finish you off. You can barely stand as it is." he said and swung at her. She held up the still bladed tonfa to block the hit but was suddenly and painfully kicked in the side by his other leg. She staggered back.

Her vision blurred again, soon no amount of willpower would keep her standing. _'I need to end this now.' _she thought. Then an idea came to her. She remembered this morning and the talk she had with Shiro. _"well even if she's too afraid to do it I don't mind giving it a try."_ she muttered quietly. As Ita ran up to hit her again.

She shifted her fingers on the non-bladed tonfa, lifting up her ring finger and pressing the button. From the base of the long end of the shaft sprung a needle, a syringe used to administer tranquilizer, not that she had any tranquilizer in it. Ducking under the blow and stepping behind him she quickly brought her elbow backwards, digging the needle into the back of his neck a few centimeters, _"I wonder. Is it crueler to defeat a masochist without inflicting any pain at all?"_ she asked as she yanked her elbow downwards, snapping off the tip needle, leaving it lodged in his neck.

She retracted the needle and the blade as Ita fell over, unconscious and paralyzed. With him unconscious the pain that had been wracking her vanished. But the pain from her injuries still remained.

The other four had recovered by this time, and they saw that Kuro was exhausted from the fight. "looks like you're a little tired. You might have taken out Ita but I doubt you can take us all out." one of them said as they approached her.

"_Don't need to," _she responded and ducked. Standing several feet behind her was another girl. The one that they had been hired to intimidate, the level 5 Electromaster. She was on her feet, the crippling pain now gone. Large sparks emitted from her forehead but she looked oddly calm as she raised her hand towards them.

They realized a second too late what was happening, having no time to react before lightning arced from her hand into their bodies, sending them into spasms before rendering them unconscious and smoking.

Kuro, meanwhile, tucked her tonfa away in the leather belt hidden beneath her shirt. She reached over to retrieve the flash grenade (which was completely reusable) from the ground and tucked that away too. Then she stood up when the lightning had stopped. She turned around. The pereskia was running towards her.

"Kuroko!" she exclaimed, "are you ok?"

Kuro held her hand up, _"I'm fi-"_ she began then stopped as the motion stirred up more pain. The adrenaline that had been rushing through her was slowly wearing off and the pain it had been dulling came back full force. Kuro walked calmly to the nearest trashcan and proceeded to empty out the contents of her stomach into it.

"_On second thought... perhaps we should go to the hospital. It's nearby right?"_ Kuro said, sounding as calm and casual as if she was suggesting they go shopping for shoes. She brushed her long, flowing hair out of her face and wiped her mouth.

"Uiharu's ok," Saten said, joining them with the unconscious girl on her back, "she's just asleep. I'll take her to the hospital Misaka so you handle Kuroko." With that said she ran off, too worried about Uiharu to care about the weight of the girl or anything else for that matter.

Misaka nodded and went up to Kuroko, "here..." she said and rested her hands on Kuroko's back.

As Misaka did so, a strange feeling coursed through Kuroko's back. An odd sort of numbness spread across the skin, as if her whole being had been injected with Novocaine, though a dull throb of pain still echoed from the marks on her skin. It was an unpleasant feeling but it was better than the blinding pain.

"Is that better?" Misaka asked, careful not to hurt her even more.

"_Much."_ she replied. Then she reached under her shirt and snapped off the belt, handing it to the pereskia, _"do me a favor and put this in your bag" _she asked, worrying that it might be taken away at the hospital. It was technically level 1 contraband after all[2]. If she was caught with it she would have a lot of things to answer for. But they would never search The Railgun's belongings.

"Uh... sure." Misaka said, doing so. She was curious as to what the strange objects were and why Kuroko had them but this wasn't the time for that. She hoisted Kuroko's arm over her shoulder and walked with her to the hospital.

Kuroko was clearly out of it. Her eyes were glazed over from pain even with Misaka doing her best to numb it using her powers. Still, she was being exceptionally brave about the whole thing. Her face did not once betray the pain she was feeling. She kept it straight and expressionless. It reminded her of how she had tried to rescue Uiharu during the Level Upper case despite all her injuries.

As they were walking towards the nearby hospital the quiet that hung in the air between them was broken as Kuroko began humming a strange tune. It was soft, short, and sad though Misaka didn't recognize it. "what is that?" she asked, hoping to break the silence and maybe get Kuroko's mind off her injuries until they got there.

"_It's a lullaby that I used to sing to myself when I was a kid," _she explained,_ "I don't really remember the words though." 'the words don't really matter. It comforts Shiro and that's all I care about.'_ she thought to herself..

That's how it's always been. The words are too emotional for you to remember. Shiro's voice echoed in Kuro's head, a reverse of the usual situation. I'll sing them for you if you keep up the tune.

And so Kuro kept humming as she listened to Shiro's song.

Misaka couldn't hear the words but she listened to the humming. The melody was too sad and lonely for her tastes. But it seemed to keep Kuroko distracted while they arrived at the hospital and went through the front door. They were quickly ushered into a room and Misaka waited outside as Kuroko's wounds were treated. She wanted to be there for her friend but also wanted to give her privacy.

However, once the doctor was finished tended to her wounds and left, she walked back in. "Feeling better?" she asked as she took a seat on the stool next to the bed, pulling it close.

Kuroko sat up. She was in a hospital gown so Misaka couldn't see her injuries. She looked at her for a second then leaned in and kissed her.

In a sense Misaka had been expecting something like that, though not so sudden. She was still embarrassed but she meekly kissed back. When they pulled away Kuroko was smiling.

"Much better. The pain is nearly gone and they sewed up the wounds. They say because they're so thin they'll be healed up by tomorrow but he said they might leave scars." She said that last bit with a tinge of sadness in her voice. She looked at Misaka, "You'll still think I'm beautiful even if my skin is scarred... right?" she asked, earnestly worried.

Misaka patted her on the head comfortingly, "I would never care about a few scars," she said sincerely. Relief washed through Misaka. She was glad that all Kuroko was worrying about was a few scars. But still... she should be worrying about more. She should be worrying about what she was going to do about those people that had come after them, who had done this to her. That's what Misaka was thinking about.

"You're angry Onee-sama," Kuroko said simply, stating a fact rather than asking a question, "I can guess what it's about and I understand why you're angry, but you should calm down before you do something rash."

"You really expect me to calm down after what happened?" Misaka asked, her voice surprisingly calm, "I can't forgive them for this."

Kuroko knew that calmness in her voice. She only got that calm when she was absolutely, truly angry. She knew she had to calm her down before she did something stupid and reckless in her anger. But when she got like this it was impossible.

...or was it...

"Onee-sama, did you know that there is a belief that throughout the body are spread seven different chakra. These chakra are a source of chi and are used in things such as acupuncture and massage and are said to be able to calm a person and restore peace of mind. The root chakra in particular is said to dispel anger," Kuroko said with a grin, "let me show you." Despite still being in pain she lunged toward Misaka.

* * *

"Ok... thanks," Saten said to the attendant sitting at the lobby's desk. Uiharu was awake and fully recovered now so they had decided to go check on Kuroko and see how she was doing. Saten had just gotten done telling Uiharu what had gone on while she was unconscious and the other girl still seemed to be reeling from the information. She was understandably skeptical of the story. Saten would be too if she hadn't seen it with her own eyes. It was like Kuroko had become a whole different person, one who kicked some serious butt.

"She says Kuroko is in room 110," she told Uiharu and they began walking in that direction.

"Are you sure you're telling the truth and weren't simply seeing things?" Uiharu asked for the third time.

"I'm telling you the truth. She kicked the guys butt without using her power once. If I had those skills it wouldn't matter if I was a level zero, I bet I could beat down anyone in our school." Saten said excitedly. Maybe she should look into taking some martial arts and getting a pair of those... whatever they were.

"Ahh, here it is," Uiharu exclaimed once they reached their destination, "Room 110." She reached for the doorknob but suddenly there erupted a huge ruckus from inside.

"Ack! Kuroko! What are you doing?"

"Don't worry Onee-sama, I'll be gentle."

"Hey! Don't touch there! Nggh-"

"Just relax and enjoy it."

"Sto- Sto-Sto-ung-"

"See... it feels good doesn't it?"

Uiharu and Saten looked at each other, their faces frozen and their mouths hanging open.

"Wrong room?" Saten suggested after a second.

"Must be..." Uiharu agreed as the two walked off, trying as hard as they could to forget everything they had just heard.

* * *

In the room Misaka was in a state of blissful calm, laying across Kuroko's lap as she rubbed the small of Misaka's back. The overwhelming anger she had been feeling moments ago melted away as her entire tensed body relaxed. "If you weren't in the hospital I'd fry you," Misaka threatened in one final protest. Though the threat was weak, lacking in any anger or intimidation

Kuroko continued regardless. She was surprised at how well this had worked. She had chalked up the whole chakra-chi thing as nothing but superstition based on a primitive understanding of the nervous system, hoping for little more than a slight effect. But it seemed that she was wrong, or that her Onee-sama had an especially sensitive root chakra. Either way it was working wonders.

So Kuroko kept it up as she talked. "Onee-sama... I understand exactly what you're thinking. Your friend was hurt and now you want revenge. I've felt the same way many times. Which is why I'm not going to stop you. I just don't want you running in recklessly. Never rush into a situation without proper intelligence. I couldn't stand you getting hurt while trying to avenge me."

Now that she was calm she listened and heard what Kuroko said. She nodded, "I understand." she said, "but I am still going to find out who is behind this and I am still going to make them pay." Her voice now held conviction rather than anger.

"Ok...just promise me you won't get hurt."

"I promise." Misaka said.

Seemingly content, Kuroko let Misaka go. Misaka almost asked her not to but stopped herself. It was embarrassing enough that she had been forced into such a position and even worse that she had enjoyed it. She blushed as she realized exactly what had happened. She stood up and left without a word.

Kuroko grinned as she left. "I'll need to remember that spot for later." she said to herself, then laid back and closed her eyes for some much needed rest.

* * *

Author's note:Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. It was long and I was having a few issues. I apologize to all my loyal readers but I am actually going to be taking slightly longer with each chapter now a days. I'm going to try to write more carefully and plan ahead more. But your patience will be rewarded because the next chapter will feature considerable butt kicking from Misaka. I haven't had her in a fight for too long so I'll try and make up for it by having her kick a lot of ass.

As I said... this was different than the last chapter. I was wondering if it was too graphic but I had my reasons for including such a disturbing villain. I was wondering to myself what situations other than Capacity Down would disable Kuroko and give Kuro a reason to come out. Kuro has much stronger willpower and doesn't need a power or concentration to fight, so I thought that the best way would be to do something that would break Kuroko's concentration. I was debating whether to have exhaustion or pain but determined pain would be better dramatically and practically. Everything else followed from there. I tried to include a part in the end that would lighten the mood but I wonder if it lightened it too much. Mood whiplash isn't good after all. So I'd like to hear your opinion.

Also, it may seem really coincidental that they were attacked so close to a hospital, but Ita had a reason to be there. He was replacing the hospital's morphine supply with hydrochloric acid when he received the call for the job and was told they were coming his way. So he simply went to the plaza and waited for them.

On a side note, after being discovered a short while later Ita was taken to the hospital where his arm was later terribly crippled when the painkillers the doctor's prescribed to him accidentally melted his arm from the inside out. Seeing that the IV contained acid rather than painkiller the rest of the IV's were carefully checked resulting in no further injuries but Ita never regained use of his arm.

* * *

[1] No. This will never happen in my story, I promise you. Kuroko does not and has never had a fiance or twin (evil or otherwise). This is not some soap opera. I mean I already have MPD, secret love affairs, and comas, that's more than enough for me.

[2] This has nothing to do with ESPer levels. Contraband is sometimes referred to by a series of levels. Level 4 is freely available, level 3 is available for civilian use with a license, level 2 is restricted to police or intelligence agencies, level 1 is restricted to military use, and level 0 is banned.


	13. Toaru Fukushu no Shototsu

Toaru Fukushu no Shototsu

A Certain Conflict of Vengeance

* * *

The sun was low in the sky as Misaka left the hospital. The sky was tinted with the flaming colors of the early sunset. The streets were littered with people who were on their way home before Academy city's strict curfew time. But Misaka didn't care about the imminent curfew. She was going to take action and take it now.

The first step would be to find out what the whole attack had been about. That Ita person said he had been hired. If that was the case who had hired him? And why and how had they done so.

She knew his name and his power. With that she could probably locate him in the databanks once she had a proper terminal. A person like that ought to have a criminal record a mile long, maybe she could find a clue somewhere in there.

Misaka fished around her pockets until she found a cluster of keys, and among them the key to Judgment branch 177's office. It was originally Uiharu's but she had lost it a while ago. Misaka had found it and had been meaning to return it for... around two months now, but it had always "slipped her mind".

Despite her carelessness, however, Uiharu was a genius when it came to computers. Judgment Branch 177 had better security than Academy City's own databanks and Uiharu's terminal had access (maybe not official access but access nonetheless) to most official networks in Academy City. If there was one place to go to get information it would be there. With its access and her hacking abilities she would have any data she wanted in a matter of seconds.

With this plan in mind she walked on towards her destination with a single minded determination that she had not felt since... well since six days ago actually. But still, it was a feeling she never got sick of. The feeling that nothing else in the world mattered except this one single goal. The sheer rush of walking alone into the unknown to face down whatever fate threw at you. The mystery, the excitement. As much as she complained about it the fact was that Misaka loved this rush of danger, she loved looking for trouble. Even more than that she loved finding it and taking it on. And now that she had a justification for looking she would not stop until she found this trouble and took care of it once and for all.

The sun had nearly disappeared below the horizon by the time Misaka arrived at the Judgment offices. As expected the lights were off and it appeared empty. Misaka walked up to the front door and unlocked it with her "borrowed" key. Then she walked up the flight of stairs to the main office. She strode in and walked over to the terminal on the desk against the far wall and its set of five monitors.

With a touch the computer roared to life, the fans hummed in the background as the screen lit up the dark room with solid blue light. After a second, a prompt came up asking her to input a password in order to log in. Misaka quickly and skillfully bypassed the prompt and was rewarded by each monitor going to its respective desktop screen.

With that done she sat down in the chair and got to work. She accessed The Bank, searching for Ita in the records. It didn't take her long to find someone with that name and a power which fit her experience. Through that file she accessed personal records, sifting through for any useful information.

First she searched under his criminal records. She saw he had innumerous misdemeanors to his name as well as being a suspect in various major crimes. However he had never been convicted. At the bottom of the list was a note, not a crime but something applicable to criminal records: "suspected affiliation with mercenary group Gordian Inc."

Misaka paused as she saw this. A mercenary group? Did Academy City have such things? Misaka decided to look further into it. If it was true and the people who had attacked them were part of this group then it would make sense that they were hired. Then Misaka could go pay them a visit and see who hired them.

So Misaka searched. Though even with her skill she was only able to gather the most basic of information. She discovered from Anti-Skill's databanks that "Gordian Inc." was a group of "private contractors" who were alleged to have committed several crimes including: possession and dealing of illegal weaponry, destruction of property, arson, kidnapping and even murder. But, despite these allegations and suspicions, there was no proof of illegal activities and no warrant had ever been passed to search their premises.

As Misaka read this she got angrier and angrier. Not only at these people who most likely committed all these heinous acts, but at Anti-Skill as well for failing to meet out justice to those who deserved it. Misaka knew from the past that sometimes Anti-Sill was effective and diligent, but she also knew how severely the bureaucracy tied up their operations.

She noted down the location of their headquarters and identified where to go, then she turned off the computer and left. The bureaucracy didn't matter to her though, she didn't need a warrant. She had a pocket full of arcade coins, a chip on her shoulder, and a billion volts running through her veins.

Tonight she was justice: cold, hard, and merciless.

She walked down the dimly lit street. The sun had long since descended, now only the crescent moon's soft glow and the streetlamps glare lit the sidewalk. She had walked for a while now, her anger building and building then dying down to a small, intense ember. She surveyed her destination, now in view, as she walked towards it, along the chain-link fence, covered with green fabric, which blocked her vision of the main building.

Ahead of her she saw the gates, heavy iron, a two part sliding design that would not look out of place in an official military complex. Two heavy concrete pillars supported the mechanism that opened and closed the door. Mounted on top of each were cameras, hidden below fish eye lenses, dutifully swiveling and keeping watch over the complex.

A man stood watch. He had on a dark black trench coat which settled unnaturally over his frame, as if he was wearing pillows or something similar underneath it. Hearing Misaka's soft, quiet footsteps he turned to look at the barely illuminated figure of a young teenage girl.

His hand instinctively went near his hip as he looked at the girl. "What are you doing here so late at night? You should probably leave." He said, more as a piece of advice than a threat.

Misaka didn't bothering answering him, at least not in words. With a thought she took over the security systems and set the camera's display on loop. Then she raised her hand towards him and sent a lightning bolt right into his torso. The force and surprise threw him backwards a couple feet, hitting the ground on his back, smoke rose from the place Misaka had hit.

With one dealt with she turned to the gate. As she did she realized that something wasn't quite right. On instinct she turned back to the guard who was lying on the ground. The lightning had burned away the fabric of the trench-coat revealing a suit of high-end padded combat armour. The suit had insulated him from the shock and left him fully conscious, he had retrieved a combat rifle from somewhere in the folds of the fabric and was taking aim.

With a quick motion Misaka magnetized her hand, yanking the iron barreled gun from the man's grip into Misaka's. She stepped forward and placed her hand on his head then sent a small electric shock into his head, knocking him out. She stepped back and looked him over, making sure he didn't hold any other surprises. Just then an alarm sounded from the building, a blaring horn that echoed around the facility but did not reach too far beyond it. In the man's left hand he held a button, when he was shocked he had reflexively pressed it, alerting his allies to the intruder.

Misaka sighed. "So much for subtlety." She said to herself as she touched the gate and activated the electronic mechanism, opening it and walking in.

It was eerily quiet. The lamps which lit the facility cast massive shadows across the grounds as a cold wind blew. Then the quiet was abruptly cut short as the loud pops of silenced gunfire rang throughout the grounds. They came from the doorway of the building. The pops were short and small, probably from a handgun. Nevertheless it would probably be lethal if it hit.

Misaka magnetically charged her hand and ripped the huge metal door off its hinges, placing it between her and the people firing at her. The bullets continued hitting it with suppressing fire, creating dents in the metal, but the thick door seemed to be reinforced and stopped them before they went through it.

Over the muffled bangs of the pistols she heard a small metal object bouncing and scraping across the dirt. She looked to see a metal canister slightly larger than a soda can rolling halfway between her and the far fence. As it slowed down a small pop erupted from it and smoke began issuing forth in great quantities.

Misaka saw what it was and guessed they were maneuvering under the cover of the smoke while her visibility was low. So she used a trick she had learned a short while ago while they were cleaning the dorm. She negatively charged the smoke grenade's metal exterior, ionizing the air. The dust and smoke particles were attracted to the charged iron, clearing the air and revealing two more people. They were fully decked out in combat gear, they even carried riot shields. They were moving up closer to get a good shot.

Her lightning would be useless against the plastic shields. But that wasn't the only trick she had up her sleeves. The dirt here was rich in iron and she used her powers to gather the particles into a sword, the edges of which vibrated at high speed giving them greater cutting power than a chainsaw.

She sent the tip towards the first of the riot shields. The iron crashed against the face of hard, durable, three-inch-thick plastic and instantly began eating away at the material. In a matter of moments her Satetsuken sawed lines through the shield, leaving nothing but 6 separate hunks of useless plastic which clattered to the ground. The next one took even less time as she wrapped the Satetsuken around it sawing at it from both sides simultaneously.

Now without the protection of their shields they began to draw their guns. But Misaka was quicker. Stopping the high-speed vibrations, she wrapped the sand sword around the two and constricted it, pinning the two tightly together. Then she sent a high voltage charge through the iron particles, fusing the iron sand together into a rough but strong iron band which bound the two together and prevented them from moving.

Stopping for a second to catch her breath, she heard the squeaking of a door and an engine roar to life. She turned around to see a black van rolling out of the garage, stopping halfway down the driveway as part of the chassis fell away to reveal a mounted heavy machine gun.

Quickly Misaka yanked the other half of the front door off its hinges as the machine gun took a second to warm up. She barely covered herself with her makeshift shield when the bullets began flying, several hitting and leaving deep dents in the iron. They hit fast and within quick succession, though the firing slowed down a little as the gunner saw that she had shielded herself. Now he was simply laying down suppressing fire until she made a move or her shield failed.

Seeing that the dents were getting deeper Misaka decided that it would be best to make a move. Perhaps she should show them just who they were dealing with.

She reached into her pocket and took out a coin. With a simple flip she sent it twirling up in the air taking careful aim. The driveway was gravel and any motion that the car made would result in a lot of noise. She didn't hear anything, and so she simply aimed at where she knew the van had been, careful to fire low and towards the middle to prevent any horrible deaths from occurring.

Then as the small metal disk descended she built up a charge, waiting until the perfect moment then sending it shooting forward at 3 times the speed of sound. It hit the gate in one of its many bullet-induced dents. The iron, already stressed from the previous impacts, offered no resistance and the coin shot through it like an arrow through butter leaving only a small hole. It streaked across the grounds leaving behind a bright trail of lightning and plasma as it hit its target dead on, sending the massive car flipping sideways through the air until it crashed into the flimsy chain-link fence which buckled under the weight of the van, now lying on its side.

Misaka was getting quite tired by now, but she had endured worse. She tried to get her bearings and analyze the situation. She blocked out the suppressing fire that was still issuing from the doorway and felt for the electromagnetic disturbances that meant a living organism. She felt the two from the doorway, but she was still protected from them. She felt another around the left corner of the house, but she was protected from him as well by the same door she had been using to guard against the van's machine gun. She also felt two more, sneaking around the fence in an attempt to flank her.

She used her powers to magnetize the fence [1], ripping it away from the spot where it was rooted to the concrete pillars. She twirled it around the two people, wrapping them up in iron fencing and fabric. But just as she finished doing that she heard a deep creaking noise behind her. She turned to see the half of the iron gate that was blocking her from the mercenary behind the corner buckling then caving in all together as several pieces of sand and gravel traveled lazily through the air, ignoring gravity as well as any object that stood in their way as they ripped through the gate as if it were paper [2].

Now she was open, and if she didn't think fast things could go very bad very quickly. So Misaka did what she did best, run straight forward into the thick of things and decide the next step from there. Stepping back a few feet before running forward, she pushed both halves of the gate out of her way as she bolted forward at an inhuman speed, lightning striking the ground behind her and propelling her forward.

She rocketed through the door right between two very surprised looking mercenaries. They quickly tried to fire at her but she reached up and touched their heads, zapping them into unconsciousness like she had done with the gate guard. They collapsed onto the hard wood floor of the entryway.

She heard a commotion ahead of her as three more of them rounded the corner to see what the noise was about. Seeing who it was and realizing their lack of armor they ducked behind the wall again. Misaka checked to see if there were any other people in the vicinity waiting to ambush her if she chased them. Sensing none she followed them, rounding the corner quickly and zapping them harshly as they tried to open a door.

* * *

From the neighboring building Kuroko could see the flash of the lightning bolts spilling onto the grounds through the open doorways. She had pondered for a second whether she should have stayed and helped but decided that this was Misaka's battle. Besides, she seemed to have it well in hand, Kuroko's presence would likely just hinder her.

"Besides, I have what I came for," She said as she hefted the heavy suitcase in her hands.

Shortly after Misaka had left the doctor had come back in the room. He rechecked her injuries and asked her some questions about how she was feeling. Satisfied with the examination he had discharged her with a prescription for some pain medication in case it was necessary.

Impressed once again with Academy City's medical facilities, she had left, heading back home wondering how her Onee-sama was. That was when she had gotten a text. She quickly checked it, wondering if it was from her. To Kuroko's surprise it was Birdy. She opened it and read.

"Hey, if you're still looking for those thingamajiggers you were looking for I have some info. I heard some people talking about how this notorious high-end mercenary group got a hold of something fitting the description of the things, a suitcase with a sound-system. Apparently it's for subjugating ESPer's and nullifying their powers or something. They're called Gordian Inc. and they're effective, ruthless, and dangerous, so watch out if you see them."

She texted her back, thanking her for the information and asking where they could be found.

"No problem, we'll just say you owe me one," Was the response, with an attachment which marked their location on a map.

With that info she teleported off, soon arriving at the location to see a battle already raging. By some odd stroke of fate Misaka was there already. She wondered what she was doing here but decided that her rampaging would provide a suitable distraction for her to sneak in and get the Capacity Down. She didn't want to alert Misaka to her presence, which would just make her curious and ask questions. She could handle things here. So instead Kuroko teleported to the side door, left slightly open by the two gents with riot shields that had just run out of it. So she walked on through it, carefully looking for the suitcase, hoping to get to it before it was activated.

She had barely walked 4 feet when a door burst open in front of her and three people ran out of a room carrying a suitcase.

"You sure this will work?" one of them asked.

"Yeah, we already tried it out, works fine. It will stop that ESPer in her tracks, then we just got to cap her quick before the others get too pissy about the noise." The one holding the suitcase replied.

Kuroko teleported in front of them, tripping the one who had just spoken and grabbing the suitcase. Then she teleported away, her business here done. A couple seconds later she was watching the pretty light show from her location away from the action.

It was a simple job, in and out in a flash. That was the beauty of a teleporter, the almost unbeatable advantage of instantaneous action. _If all of them are this easy to get maybe we can wrap this up in relatively short order._

"Hopefully," Kuroko responded and teleported away. She would await her valiant warrior at home after she hid her newest acquisition in a safe place.

* * *

Back in the house the "valiant warrior" had just finished frying the three people. She looked in the room they had been trying to go in. As opposed to the ordinary plaster walls of the rest of the place these walls were lined with lead and steel. The floor and ceiling were similarly reinforced. In racks along the walls lay several suits of combat armor, helmets, shields, and weapons. It looked like a military armory, lined with expensive high end equipment. Along one wall lay a security booth. The several monitors each relaying the feed from a different camera, still in the loop Misaka had set at the beginning. In the middle of the room lay a bullet proof glass container that looked like it had recently been opened, the contents taken out.

Despite the impressive collection of weaponry and armor, Misaka ignored the room, there was no one else there and she wasn't here to gawk at all the pretty assault rifles.

"HEY!" she heard someone yell. Instinctively turning and looking at the source of the noise only to be blinded the next instant by a bright flash of light. The light left her reeling and she felt as something hard constricted around her. It bound her arms tightly to her sides, unable to move.

"Well looks like we caught her." She heard a voice say

"Yep. Misaka Mikoto, Level Five. Commonly known as The Railgun." Another one said.

Slowly her vision returned and she saw two people, a guy and a girl, both in the combat armour without helmets. They were talking to each other as if they had just caught a prize winning fish.

"How much do you think we can make off her?" the girl said.

"Depends. She's some rich Ojou-sama so we could ransom her. Or we could sell her elsewhere."

Needless to say, people talking like this about her greatly annoyed her, even more so when they talked like they had won despite the fact that she didn't need her hands to beat them. A spear of lighting erupted from her forehead striking them both with sufficient force that they shot backwards across the hall. Even the insulation from the armor couldn't save them from unconsciousness after a blow like that.

Now there was only one more to deal with. She looked around from him and saw him round the doorway. He clutched another handful of sand and gravel and threw it down the hall at her where it traveled through the air as before.

Given what it had done to the solid iron gate she guessed that it would not be a good thing if she was hit by one of those, but the spread would make it difficult to dodge, especially caught up like she was. But she didn't need to dodge. She fired another lightning bolt at the sand, melting it and fusing the pieces together into a large piece of fulgurite which immediately dropped like a rock, leaving Misaka with a clear window to attack. With another lightning bolt she disabled him, the remaining pieces of gravel dropping to the floor as he fell into unconsciousness.

Sensing no one else she took a much needed breather as she figured out how to get whatever was binding her off. It was a large, clear, continuous loop of plastic with no seams or breaks. Since the person who had trapped her was unconscious it wasn't a direct product of their power. It was possible that they had thrown something large over her then shrunk it when it was around her to bind her. In which case she would need to escape on her own.

The problem was… how. She couldn't just melt it. It was touching her bare skin and would severely burn her if she tried. She could trust that kind of precision to her Satetsuken either. Her powers were useless here.

"Damnit… I don't need my powers for this," she said with substantial anger in her voice as she squirmed and flexed her arms. The plastic dug into her skin as she struggled but she ignored the pain. Soon she could feel it give way, bending outwards. She pressed her arms tightly to her again and the loop of plastic dropped off of her, freeing her. She rubbed the deep lines it had pressed into her skin, but pushed them to the back of her mind. She still had to fulfill her original mission.

She turned right and walked down the hallway. There was a door on her left at the far end, she would start her search there.

She opened the door to see what looked like an office. The walls were lined with file cabinets and in the middle was a large fancy desk with a computer resting on top of it. A man sat behind the desk, fingers drumming the mahogany surface as he looked at Misaka.

Before Misaka could react he held his hands up in the air. "I surrender," he said.

As Misaka was still processing this information she heard him continue, "you're Misaka Mikoto right? I can guess why you're here. A contract was recently taken against you. I'm guessing you want revenge. Judging by the fact that you're standing here I'm guessing you got it."

"That depends, who are you?" She asked. If he was part of this group then her revenge wasn't complete until she got him as well, but until then she could use him to gather some information.

"I'm just the accountant," he said, "I handle the business part of this, make the whole thing profitable. I don't do the dirty work."

"If you're the accountant then you'd know who took out the contract against me."

"That would be the Honogun family. We've done some work for them in the past though this is the most unusual contract we've received. They paid in advance though so..." he said with a shrug, "it's really nothing personal, I hope you understand."

"I understand perfectly," Misaka responded before walking up and punching him square in the jaw, knocking him out in an instant as he fell off his chair onto the floor. It didn't matter if he did the "dirty work" or not, he was worse than the others.

Walking around the desk she sat in his chair and hacked into his computer, searching the records to verify what he had said. He seemed to be telling the truth, the records backing up his statements. It seemed like that little person who had had the gall to threaten her at school also had the nerve to back up those threats.

Misaka stood up, "you do understand Miss Honogun, that this means war." She said as she walked away from the ruined building back home. As she walked away she heard Anti-Skill's sirens speeding towards the building she had just left behind.

* * *

"yeah. It's me. She's retrieved the second one without a problem."

"I see. And how is the other one doing?"

"The Railgun? Her abilities are as impressive as the reports, possibly more so. She seemed to have no problem breaking all his little toys. Think he'll be angry with us?"

"I do not think so. He has many other pawns. The sacrifice of one hardly compares to the benefits our work will reap."

"And yet you still feel guilty about manipulating those two."

"Some people are easy to sacrifice, others not so much. What matters is the end result. We must have faith that what we are doing is right. When this is all over then we will face the consequences, but until then we must persist."

"I understand. I will continue surveillance and inform you of any progress."

"Very well." The man said as he hung up. He strolled over to the pots that lined the wall.

"It seems they are just beginning to bloom," he remarked as he looked at his most recently planted flowers, "They still require a careful eye to ensure they grow as expected."

* * *

Author's note: Well, I promised a buttkicking from Misaka and I like to think I delivered. Sure there are some other things here and there but a solid half of it is Misaka beating the baddies (the other half would have been her chewing bubble gum… but she's all out of bubble gum). Fast paced, high-octane action that truly showcases Misaka's amazing talent.

I did kind of glaze over Kuroko's bit, but it was so minor and I already give her so much attention that it would have been detrimental to the rest of the story if I had gone more in depth. For all those Kuroko fans next chapter will have her as a focus so just you wait. Not only that but there will be considerable plot exposition (cue applause).

I've planned things out a bit more thoroughly now so I should be able to get the next chapters done quicker, but we'll see.

You know it's odd. This arc was originally intended as a side story that barely linked to the events of the rest, but as it developed it became far more important to the action and now it looks like it will contain more content than the "main story" by far. I question whether this is a good thing or not but I think I can make it work out if I try. So keep on reading!

* * *

[1] Is it weird that, after all the other feats Misaka pulls off in this chapter this is the one I think is least likely to be canonically valid? I'm not sure if she can magnetize things at a distance or anything like that, so I'm not quite sure if she could do this (or the air ionization thing). But still, acceptable breaks from reality are the privilege of the fiction writer.

[2] If you didn't recognize it, the power displayed here is Equal Speed, seen in episode 5 (I believe) of the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun anime. Whether it's the same person from all those years ago or not is your choice, I leave the matter open.


	14. Toaru Unmei no Pasu

Toaru Unmei no Pasu

A Certain Path of Destiny

* * *

Kuroko sat on her bed with the suitcase open in her lap. The Capacity down system nestled snuggly against one side. At the top of the device in the same golden script as before was the same signature that the other one held. The signature of Jericho.

"Considering how powerful a weapon that this 'Jericho' constructed, they must be some incredibly dangerous and evil person," Kuroko said.

_Are you being sarcastic?_

"I intended to be but the truth of the matter is that I don't quite know who it'll turn out to be. But I am going to find out."

_You're going to find her?_

"That's the plan."

_And you're going to keep this whole thing secret?_

"That's the problem. I don't want to lie and sneak around but…all things considered I probably have to. Hopefully this will end tomorrow when I find her, so I hope that I won't need to lie_._"

_The pereskia will be back soon. Best to hide that and pretend you were asleep._

"Yeah…" Kuroko said as she closed it and teleported it away. Then she stood up and walked over to her extensive nightwear collection. She reached up for one of her usual see-through negligees but hesitated and grabbed instead one of the few "normal" sets of pajamas. Though the word normal wasn't exactly what most people would use to describe a name brand silk set of hand-embroidered light pink pajamas.

But Kuroko had taste. Even when it was something like this she wouldn't lower herself to childish, cheap Gekota-print fabric like her Onee-sama did. After all, she was privileged. She had money and she, unlike Onee-sama, would act like it. High-class people should be high in class.

After she changed she turned the light off and went over to Onee-sama's bed. She crawled under the covers and got herself comfortable.

Not five minutes later Misaka walked into the room and over to the bed, promptly collapsing on top of it and falling asleep immediately.

Kuroko looked over at her. She was slouched over the bed, half on half off. She seemed absolutely exhausted to fall asleep in such an uncomfortable position. Kuroko got up and laid her down on the floor. Then, moving the blanket aside, she teleported her an inch over the mattress. With her now properly in bed Kuroko crawled in beside her and tucked them both in.

"Welcome back my brave knight, I'm glad to see you home in one piece," she whispered to Misaka as she snuggled up to her before she too fell to sleep.

The next morning Misaka woke to the sound and smells of cooking. She sat up , yawned and stretched. Then she stood up to go to the kitchen, but instantly she rethought that idea.

"Kuroko," she called instead.

"Good Morning Onee-sama," Kuroko responded from the kitchen.

"Do you have clothes on this time?" She asked, yesterday making her understandably cautious about walking into her kitchen without a second thought.

"Unfortunately for you yes I do." She replied in a teasing voice.

"Shut up," Misaka replied eloquently as she began getting ready.

After that the two roommates sat down at their table to enjoy Kuroko's breakfast.

"How are you feeling?" Misaka asked.

"I'm feeling fine, they're all better now. They don't hurt at all," Kuroko replied, understanding what she meant, "what about you? How did your little crusade go?"

"Oh, it was fine," Misaka said, brushing it off. Even though she had given her blessing yesterday she did not want to worry Kuroko by telling her just how difficult the fight had been.

"I see, well that's good to hear." Kuroko said. She couldn't show too much worry or she might let it slip that she knew what had gone on. So she let the topic drop and they moved onto more casual subjects of conversation.

After that they went to school acting as if there weren't someone who had ordered an attack on them just to get her to join a silly little school club. Of course Kuroko didn't exactly know that, and Misaka didn't intend to tell her. Misaka worried that if she found out she would attempt to do something, get some sort of revenge. Her heart was in the right place but Misaka still worried about her tendencies towards violence and she didn't want Kuroko to get thrown out of Tokiwadai or get into trouble for her sake.

Completely oblivious to the hypocrisy in her reasoning, Misaka resolved to keep this secret from Kuroko.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened that morning. Misaka met with Kuroko and they went to lunch. They talked for a few minutes until Kuroko excused herself and left. Misaka was glad she did as, the next minute, she saw Yoshinko walking up to her table.

"Have you rethought my offer from yesterday?" she asked as she drew close.

"Yes actually," Misaka said barely holding back the anger that flared each second this person was in her presence, "it's gone from 'No thank you' to 'Not in a million years'. You really think I'm going to join after what you did?"

"What I did?" she repeated innocently, "I haven't done anything."

Her only answer was a glare.

"Very well," Yoshinko said, "I guess it's on to plan B. You know what they say after all: 'If they don't join you, crush them.'"

"I'll take you on any time," Misaka said aggressively.

"Tut tut, so impatient," she said with a smile as she walked away, "all things in time Ace of Tokiwadai"

* * *

As this was going on Kuroko was hanging out on the roof. She checked to make sure no one else was there . Once she was sure she was alone she began speaking, "Why must you insist on talking when you know I can't respond."

_Because you don't need to respond, you just need to listen._

"I'm not going to listen when what you're saying has no relevance to what I'm talking about."

_What you're talking about has no relevance to anything though. So why don't you stop wasting time talking about pointless bits and bobs and actually do something useful. Like coming up with a plan._

"You know my plan."

_I know your plan to find Jericho, what about when we face her?_

"I guess it all depends on who we're facing at that point."

_So you should probably bring my weapons along just in case. _

Kuroko had retrieved the belt with the tonfa and flash-grenades early that morning before Misaka woke up. "I guess but I doubt I'll need them."

_Always plan for the worst, you know that._

"I suppose you're right… but still. We try to solve this my way first, ok?"

_I know. I won't ever step in unless absolutely necessary, you know that. I know how it makes you feel and unlike some other people I actually care about your feelings._

With that sorted out Kuroko went back to the lunchroom. Misaka seemed a little on edge, perhaps something had happened while she was gone. Kuroko almost asked but decided against it. 'If she wants to talk to me about it she'll talk to me about it.' She justified. She needed to trust that Misaka would start being more open with her now that they were in a relationship. Besides, she had her own matters to deal with. Misaka could look after herself for the most part.

So they simply went back to talking about pointless things, both pretending that nothing had interrupted them to begin with but both lost in their own thoughts with their own problems that each knew they needed to bear alone.

"I'll be heading to Judgment right after school and I probably won't see you until tonight." Kuroko informed Misaka as the lunch bell rang, "so see you then."

Misaka gave a sound of acknowledgement then they went off to their respective classes.

After school Kuroko went off to the Judgment office. She didn't work for very long today but it would be a good opportunity to get some information. So she hurried there and sat down at her laptop, stopping first to say "Hi" to Konori-Senpai before she left to go on patrol.

With her gone Kuroko quickly got on with her real work. She began scrolling through the databases, looking for a clue as to where she could find Jericho.

As she was looking the door opened and Uiharu and Saten walked in, talking to each other.

When she saw Kuroko, Saten waved at her, "Yo. How are you today?"

"I'm fine," Kuroko responded without taken her eyes off the screen.

"Are you sure you should be working today? You did get hurt yesterday," Uiharu said, concerned for her friend and co-worker's safety.

"I'm fine,"

"Speaking of that…" Saten said, "what were those things you had yesterday?" Her curiosity had been building up all of yesterday and today. She wanted some answers, like where she could get a pair of those things.

"I'm fine," Kuroko said again.

Saten looked at Kuroko. Something seemed off. "Which Chinese queen was born in the 10th century?" she asked probingly.

"I'm fine," was her only answer.

Saten walked over to the distracted girl while Uiharu looked on, her concern growing. Saten tried to get a peek as to what was distracting her. But before she could get the screen in her field of vision, Kuroko closed it up and stood up. "I'm heading out," she said simply before teleporting away, leaving two worried girls to wonder what was going on with their friend.

Kuroko, meanwhile, made her way back to her dorm. She would need a few things from there first. When she got there she retrieved her weapons belt and one of the two suitcases. With those in tow she made her way to the address. It was a large, if cheap, apartment building in school district 14. It was several stories tall with a classic brick and mortar look.

Kuroko approached the large glass double doors. Along the side of it was a series of buttons with names that would activate a buzzer so the person you wanted to visit could let you in. She glanced at the names, finding the one she was looking for and noting the apartment number. But she still hesitated to press the button and lose the element of surprise that might become necessary.

Instead of pressing it, she looked around at the neighboring buildings as well as the streets. Security here was pretty shoddy. There weren't any security cameras around here at all. She sighed. "Considering all I've done the past few days, trespassing is a drop in the bucket. This is all your fault you know."

_While I admit that the police brutality was all my doing, the rest were you I'm afraid._

"That police brutality led to this entire mess. Plus you were the one who brought the first Capacity Down home with you," she retorted before teleporting inside, past the door. Then she began walking up the stairs. Her destination was on the seventh floor so it was quite a walk but it allowed her time to think. Think of what to do, of what to say. She pondered who she would be facing when she knocked on that door. What would Jericho be like? Would she really be dangerous and evil?

Before she knew it she was standing in front of the door to Apartment 709, ready to find out once and for all. Taking a deep breath she knocked on the door. A few second later the door opened a crack as a deep azure colored eye gazed up at Kuroko.

The occupant hid timidly behind the door of her apartment, the light of the hallway illuminating the half of her face which peeked out. She was small, several centimeter's shorter than Kuroko and even a few shorter than Birdy. Her skin was pale and slightly gaunt. Her hair was beautiful, white as the purely driven snow shining though illuminated only by the dim light of the hall. It tumbled down her back like a bridal veil.

"C…can I help you?" she asked quietly. Her voice was timid and as week as a mouse. She was biting her lip and squirming uncomfortably. She had not been expecting a Judgment officer to be visiting her. She didn't ever expect visitors and especially not a law enforcement official. She scoured her mind, searching for things that she could have done wrong to deserve this visit. Not only that but there was something else, something that was bugging her about this Judgment person.

"Probably," Kuroko responded with a smile, "We used to help each other all the time."

As soon as she heard the voice the girl's eye widened with realization. The next second the door flew open and the girl wrapped her arms around Kuroko's waist. "Shiro-chan? Is that really you?" she asked, the shyness and weakness in her voice dropped for an instant as she was overcome with disbelief and happiness.

Kuroko hugged the girl back, "Yeah, it's me Jericho-chan. It's been a long time hasn't it?"

It was seven years ago but Kuroko remembered it well. After one year of grueling training under the Power Curriculum Program she had finally begun emitting an AIM field [1]. Furthermore she was one of the few people who had actually developed a bit of a power. Though in those days her teleportation was limited to teleporting a paper cup from one hand to the other. Without knowledge of the complex spatial geometry necessary to maneuver things around in 11th dimensional space, she needed to use her own body as a reference point for both point of origin and point of arrival. Still that, along with her natural intelligence, was enough to get her into the advanced classes.

After the Power Curriculum Program had induced an AIM field in a person the training became far less arduous and began resembling a normal school path, with grades 1-12 and then university. Though the Curriculum was geared towards strengthening your powers they taught many other things as well. And even though they still tended to be more specialized than schools outside the city, the schools still took a far more general approach than the extremely individualistic training that preceded it.

Kuroko couldn't remember her first day at school. Or even her first week. Though she remembered how lonely it had been. Kuroko had always been alone. For the first five years of her life she rarely had anyone to talk to. Nobody to tuck her in at night or read her a bedtime story. She had always needed to sing herself to sleep with her own lullabies. But she was fine with that. She never really knew that there was greener grass elsewhere, never knew the joy of having a friend.

That was until Kuro came. Kuro had been her first friend, taught her the joys of having someone who you could talk to and tell your secrets. Taught her what it was like to have someone listen to your every word and care for you.

But Kuro was inside her head. The first week she had watched as the other children laughed together and played together. How they would run around playing tag or hide and seek. How they could reach out to their friend and touch them. That was a luxury that she and Kuro would never have.

That was why she was so lonely. For the first time she was surrounded by people. She could see the meadow that stretched beyond the fence and could see just how green the grass was. She finally saw what she was missing, and she finally felt the loneliness that had never before had a name.

It was during her second week that she discovered that she was not alone in her loneliness. There was another girl who was always alone. She had very little presence, so quiet and small though she had a fairly remarkable appearance. Beautiful white hair and striking blue eyes. But because of her lack of presence, she rarely had any interaction with anyone, and when she did it was usually another classmate teasing her.

On the day the two finally met she was being bullied by one of the boys in their class as she sat there quietly, not reacting at all to the verbal abuse. But Kuroko couldn't sit by and watch it happen. She marched over to the boy and said, "Stop picking on that girl. You're not being a very nice person."

"So what you cootie-ridden freak. I don't need to be nice to people like her," he said as he pushed the girl.

"Hey!" Kuroko yelled at him, "You better apologize for that."

"Or else what?" He asked as he pushed Kuroko down onto the floor too. He was bigger than Kuroko by quite a bit and he knew it. He stood tall with a wide stance, trying to make himself look even bigger, "what's a girl like you gonna do to me?"

Calmly Kuroko got back on her feet. She took a deep breath as she face the bully and leaned back a little. Then she quickly stepped forward and rammed her head into his face. The surprise and the impact knocked him back a little as blood started dripping from his nose.

"Oww," he said as his eyes began welling with tears, "That hurt! I'm telling the teacher on you!" He wailed as he ran off. Kuroko walked up to the girl who still lay on the ground. She knelt down and offered her hand. Very hesitantly the other girl took it and Kuroko helped her up. Her grip was weak and frail in Kuroko's own, her hand shaking and unsure. But Kuroko held it reassuringly, happy to finally have someone whom she could hold hands with.

"Are you ok?" Kuroko asked. The girl nodded in response.

"I'm Shirai Kuroko, what's your name?"

Kuroko could barely hear the response, the girl's voice was so quiet. "Athura thothi" she said, lisping on the s's. a small blush coloring her cheeks as she realized she couldn't even say her own name.

"Asura[2] Soshi? That's a really pretty name. Perfect for a girl with such pretty hair and eyes." Kuroko said enthusiastically.

The girl blushed deeper at her compliments. She was usually mocked or teased about her hair, not complimented on it. Not only that but she was still holding her hand…

But before either of them could say anything a teacher came over and talked to Kuroko, telling her off for head-butting and injuring a fellow student before marching her over to say sorry to the kid. That was the first of what would become a long series of fake apologies, extending even to this very day with her work in Judgment. After that she was forced to sit in the corner for the rest of their breaktime and she didn't get to talk to Asura anymore that day.

But the day after that she made it a point to find her and spend time with her. As well as the day after that and for the next several days to come. They soon became friends, even if she hardly talked to anyone. Slowly Kuroko helped bring her out of her shell a little though and when it was just the two of them she would talk almost like a normal person, albeit an abnormally polite, shy, and quiet person.

Given her personality, her power shocked Kuroko. She could produce sound of different frequencies and intensities. One of the first displays Kuroko saw was her shattering a glass, though it took a lot of concentration and time. She was a genius when it came to sound. She had an audiographic memory and could remember just about any sound she had ever heard. She could identify all the properties of a piece of music or just any random noise. She had said that day she first showed her powers to Kuroko everything, like the glass, had a particular frequency at which it would resonate, and if that frequency was kept up for long enough it would break.

"Wow!" Kuroko had responded, impressed with the display, "so someday you'll be able to shatter other things right? You'll be able to shatter rock and send buildings crashing to the ground with nothing but sound. Just like in that one story, about that city, Jericho." Suddenly Kuroko got a great idea, "hey, you know how friends always give each other nicknames? How about I call you Jericho-chan? And you can come up with one for me."

Asura was surprised but also touched. She had never had a nickname before, never had someone to call her one. And she liked the sound of her nickname: Jericho. The only problem is that she wasn't very creative herself and she struggled to come up with one. "How about Shiro-chan?" she suggested meekly.

It was a little odd considering that Asura was the one with white hair while she had brown, but for some reason, it fit. _Shiro sounds nice._

"I like it," Kuroko replied with a smile.

Those were nice days, happy days. But they could not last forever. After two years of friendship the two parted, each going to a different school. It was a sad time, but they had known it was inevitable and they eventually got over it to follow their own paths.

But it seemed that a paths diverged by destiny can also be rejoined by the same.

"It's been a long time," Kuroko repeated nostalgically as she held the shy little Jericho. She was exactly the same as Kuroko remembered. She had worried that the times had changed her but nothing had changed it seemed, even after so long.

After a second Jericho withdrew from the embrace, blushing. "um… sorry…" she said, her voice back to its previous level and tone, "did you want to come in?" she asked looking around slightly embarrassed.

"Sure," she said as she was led into Jericho's apartment. It was small and dark with several pieces of electrical equipment lying around next to a computer which sat on a table near the wall. It was very tidy, but Jericho never been that messy. Kuroko guessed she was living alone; the electrical equipment was likely used in her inventing.

"I… uh… I don't really have any chairs…" Jericho remarked, "Sorry."

"That's ok I'll just sit on the floor," Kuroko said before doing just that. Jericho sat across from her, facing her and looking at her, or at least looking somewhere on the floor to the right of her.

"umm…" she began, "I hate to sound rude but is there a reason you decided to visit after all this time."

"Actually there is. I had a few questions to ask." Kuroko said as she hoisted the suitcase up and opened it revealing the device contained within, "about this."

Jericho's eyes widened and she seemed to shrink, "I'm sorry," she said voice full of fear, guilt, and sadness, "I didn't mean to cause anyone trouble, I didn't mean for things to turn out this way." Tears started forming around the edges of her eyes as she hug her knees.

Kuroko put her arm around Jericho's shoulders and held her comfortingly. "there there, don't' worry. You're not in trouble. I just want to know what this is all about. What is this thing?"

It took a while for Jericho to calm down enough to speak again. When she finally stopped sniffling she began, "you know that day when we gave each other our nicknames?"

"Of course."

"Remember how I told you that everything has a frequency that will make it resonate and break. Well it's not just physical things that have that. And not all things have only one. That device produces one of seven different frequencies which resonate with an ESPer's AIM field and destabilize it. It completely nullifies their abilities and, as a side effect, creates a strong disturbance in the brainwaves physically disabling them as well without having any effect on level 0's or non ESPers."

"I see. You built it right? Why?"

Jericho sniffled again, "yes. My mother has recently grown very ill and my father's job can't fully support the family on its own, let alone pay for her medical bills. So I needed to find a way to help, to get money for her and my family. I decide to try and become an inventor. I've been doing it for a while now, though I've been operating under a pseudonym, the nickname you gave me all those years ago. I try to create things which use sound to help people and get enough money to help my mother as well. It was going fine but things were quickly falling behind, I just wasn't making enough. That's when I got the offer from a place called Vulcanus Industries to create these things."

"I'd heard of the concept before. I heard how it was used to hurt people and I told them that I didn't want to build a weapon. But they told me they intended to use it for good, to help people rather than hurt them, and they promised to pay me enough money to pay off all my families bills and debts. So I accepted."

"The other versions of this aren't very powerful or efficient you understand. Rather than try to break the glass by hitting the right frequency, they simply get to a frequency that's close enough and hope to break it by intensity. I looked into it and found six of the specific frequencies that made the AIM field resonate. Using those I built those devices, each one utilizes a single frequency and because it is so precise it can have almost the same effect as a van sized one for a tiny fraction of the size."

"The deadline came and I told them I had six. They said that was fine and we arranged the drop-off. Everything seemed to go fine but a couple days later I was told that the person who picked them up never returned, that he sold them off and then left the company and fled. The person I talked to was very kind. He said that because it was his employee it was his responsibility and that I could keep the money. He said the matter would take care of itself and I just needed to figure out the seventh frequency. But I've been worrying ever since. What if someone bad got their hands on it and hurt someone? It would all be my fault."

It was probably the most that Kuroko had ever heard coming from Jericho's mouth. And it took a good long while for all of it to come out with her pauses and intermittent crying. Kuroko was holding her the entire time she spoke, trying to help ease her mind and let the words flow. "There there," she said, "you don't have to worry about a thing. I promise that I won't let anyone get hurt by these things. I'll collect each and every one and make sure that no one uses it for bad. "

"Shiro-chan…" Jericho said, her head buried in Kuroko's shoulder, "I can't ask you to do that, this is my responsibility, my fault. I can't let you get hurt because of me."

"I won't get hurt; don't you remember what I am?"

Jericho looked at her for a second, scouring her memory. Then she smiled, "You're Shiro-chan, the hero of justice, the brave knight who protects the princess," she recalled what Kuroko had told her she intended to be when she grew up.

"Exactly. And what kind of knight would I be if I let the princess get hurt? I'll take care of it… I already have two of them."

Jericho looked conflicted for a moment. Then she looked deep into Kuroko's eyes and, seeing the determination burning brightly within them, she nodded. "Ok… I believe in you."

"Good," Kuroko said returning her smile, "now it's getting late and the hero must return to her ordinary life. How about we go out on Saturday, you and me. We can catch up without having to deal with all this stuff. It will be like old times?"

"I…. I'd like that," Jericho said as she hugged Kuroko one last time.

"Goodbye then," Kuroko said, sad that she had to go so soon, but it was getting dark. So she teleported off and away back home. She felt happy. She had regained an old friend, a good friend.

"Things are really looking up aren't they Kuro."

And indeed, even the cold, heartless Kuro had to agree with that.

* * *

Author's Note: It's very hard, as a writer, to keep a secret from your readers when a characters knows it and makes allusions to it. It's a careful balance of giving enough information without giving too much. I hope I did well enough with this little plot twist and I hope it was enjoyable for you to read.

It's an interesting story actually. Jericho was originally an antagonist, just a one shot villain that would be defeated quickly. She originally just had a power. That was until I made a classic mistake as an author. I gave her a name to go with her power. After that I didn't really want to have her show up only to be defeated in the same chapter. I wanted to give her more character, more background. I eventually decided upon this and thus was born The Jericho Arc. Which will probably be, somewhat ironically, the majority of the story.

Oh and I'd like to thank all my readers, with special kudos to my reviewers. You guys really make me want to give this my all. So once again, I thank you.

* * *

[1] Considering AIM stands for "An Involuntary Movement" this sounds a bit redundant (an An Involuntary Movement field ((which actually sounds really stupid… how can a movement be a field?))), but if you just put AIM then it doesn't sound right. I'd rather go with what sounds right than what sounds slightly unnecessary when you give it some thought.

[2] The name's not really appropriate I know. She's way more like Rei than Asura, but I needed a name with an 'S' in it.


	15. Toaru Kumo no Hito

Toaru Kumo no Hito

A Certain Person of the Clouds

* * *

Misaka had been wandering around since school had ended. Her mind full of thoughts and her thoughts full of annoyance. Though some others might disagree, she worked hard to make sure that she did not have many enemies. So why, despite all her hard work, did she continue to make them? Did being a level 5 make people inherently hate you?

Misaka sighed, she knew the answer to that. Yes, it did. Sure not everyone hated her but most people, out of jealousy, spite, or envy, disliked her before they had even laid eyes on her. Even her friends had, apparently, felt the same way before they met her. But Misaka was also lucky, in a sense, to have people who looked past that. True friends who didn't care whether or not she was a level 5. Friends who, because of her, had gotten hurt.

The thought saddened her and filled her with guilt, but it also reminded her that she had not seen Saten or Uiharu since the incident. Maybe she should pop by Judgment to see how they were doing. She knew Uiharu and Kuroko had work and hoped she would find Saten there as well.

A short walk later had her arrive at Judgment Branch 177 offices, where she found Uiharu and Saten but, curiously, no Kuroko. "Hey guys," she greeted, "where's Kuroko, didn't she have work today?"

They looked at her, "hey there," Saten said, "she was here just a minute ago but then she just disappeared without a word."

"I'm worried, she's been acting differently recently. Do you have any idea what's going on?" Uiharu asked.

Misaka took a step back, not quite sure what to say. Kuroko was acting a little oddly, but that was probably because they were in a relationship now, and she couldn't exactly tell them that. "I uh... I haven't really noticed it." She said.

"See, I told you it was probably nothing. Maybe she was just searching for a big lingerie sale and needed to rush to get to it in time," Saten joked

"She takes her job more seriously than that," Uiharu defended.

"Not like another Judment officer I can think of."

Uiharu huffed at Saten's comment, folding her arms and turning around. "You don't need to be so mean about it."

"gomen gomen. You know I was just joking Uiharu, you're a great officer you know that." She comforted, wrapping her arm around Uiharu's shoulder.

Misaka smiled to see them playing just like usual. They seemed fine, despite yesterday's trials. Though she was feeling a little bit like a third wheel here as they joked around with each other. "Well I should probably get going," she said excusing herself.

"Ah, wait. I'll join you. We don't want to disturb Ms. Employee of the month do we?" Saten volunteered, "We'll bring something sweet back for you k Uiharu?"

"Thanks," she said, Saten's slight forgiven at the promise of a snack.

With that the two girls left, "where are we going," Saten asked as they went outside.

"Well... I hadn't exactly planned on going anywhere in particular. Did you have some place you wanted to go?"

"Let's head to the crepe stand, I'm feeling like a banana cream crepe and we can get Uiharu a strawberry one to match."

"Match what?" Misaka asked.

"Her panties," Saten replied.

"You say that so casually..." Misaka said, slightly embarrassed by the comment, "why do you always flip her skirt anyway?"

"It's a habit. I've been doing it since the day we met."

"Why did you do it then?" It was a somewhat awkward conversation for Misaka but her curiosity overrode her embarrassment. She had witness Saten flip Uiharu's skirt countless times, and had always wondered why.

"Well you know that expression, 'have your panties in a bunch'? Well I wondered one day if that actually happened, so I walked up to the nearest girl and flipped her skirt to check." Saten told her with a straight face.

Misaka's jaw almost dropped when she heard that. It was completely and utterly ridiculous, "you can't be serious," she said.

"Nope, I'm not," A smile broke across her face as she began laughing.

Misaka facepalmed, wondering how she could have been so gullible as to believe that story for even a second. "just forget I asked," she said. It was a silly question anyway.

"Sure thing," She replied. After that the two were silent for a short while, then Saten spoke up again, "So how are things going with your boyfriend?"

"Uh... fine I guess," Misaka replied, still not entirely comfortably with this topic.

"Does Kuroko know you have a boyfriend? Is that why she's acting strangely?" She had had the idea back at the office but couldn't exactly discuss it in front of Uiharu.

It made a bit of sense but she was still unsure. What she had heard through the hospital door yesterday seemed to indicate that she had no idea, but Misaka could have told her while they... were doing whatever it is that they were doing. It would explain her distant behavior.

But Misaka crushed that theory quickly, nervously saying, "no... not exactly. Besides, I'm sure it's nothing, maybe just some random moodswings. I get them myself from time to time." She rambled slightly as she tried to think up excuses.

"Isn't that just you being a tsundere?" Saten teased, making Misaka blush.

"I'm not a tsundere," she said a little too loudly, drawing a few stares and making her blush even more as she hurried onward to escape the eyes.

Saten picked up the pace to catch up, "gomen gomen," she said, apologizing for the 13th time today (A pretty big number though it wasn't even close to her record of 57 times that one time in 4th grade)[1]. "though it's kind of weird. Knowing how long you kept that a secret makes me wonder what else is going on with my friends that I don't know about. I wonder if Uiharu has a secret boyfriend stashed away somewhere..." The tone in her voice had gone from chipper and excited to slightly melancholy. Whether she was saddened more by the thought of her friends hiding things from her or by the thought of Uiharu having a boyfriend Saten wasn't sure.

"Some secrets are necessary," Misaka said, trying at once to comfort Saten and to assuage her own feelings of guilt, "It's not always a matter of trust. Sometimes it's a matter of protection. Sometimes you have to keep secrets to protect yourself or the people you care about."

"I suppose your right, but still... don't you feel just bad when you learn that someone was keeping a secret from you?" Saten said as they approached the crepe stand and ordered their crepes, and Uiharu's as well. "Should we get one for Kuroko as well? In case she came back while we were out?"

"Nah," Misaka decided, "She can just share mine if she wants some."

Saten giggled, "she'll be excited by that. Try not to tease the poor girl too much, or she truly will be devastated when she finds out." Though Misaka was her friend and she understood her reluctance to inform other people that she was in a relationship, Kuroko was also her friend. Saten knew that this would end badly for them when Kuroko learned of this. She could become seriously depressed, and she really didn't want that for her. She hoped Misaka would let her down gently but ever since she had learned of this neither had acted as if anything was going on. Despite her support of Misaka she truly understood how Kuroko felt and couldn't help but think Misaka was handling this all wrong. But she kept up her cheery facade as they got their crepes and left.

Misaka didn't respond, but shifted nervously as they walked back. After that there hung a silence between the two as they walked back. Saten was lost in thought and Misaka was too nervous about letting something slip. After a much longer feeling trip, they arrived back at Judgment. They went back upstairs to see that Kuroko still hadn't returned. Uiharu was at her computer screen as usual, scanning the cameras in the area. When she heard the door close she jumped in her chair and quickly shut down the program. She had been looking for Kuroko and was focused on the task when the sound had startled her.

Saten walked over and handed her her crepe as Misaka looked at Kuroko's unmanned workstation. "I'm gonna go now, I've got some homework I need to do," she remarked.

"Oh yeah," Saten said, "me too. Help me with it k Uiharu. Also if I could borrow your fourth hour notes."

Misaka left the two others as she left the office to wander around a little more. She wandered aimlessly through the familiar district for a long while, too distracted to do her homework like she had said. She grew tired of all these secrets but was loathe to reveal them. There's was a necessary existance but one that still gnawed at Misaka's conscience.

"Hiya there Misaka-senpai," a voice called, jarring her out of her thoughts. A girl stood in front of her on the streets. She wore a Tokiwadai uniform and had light teal hair that hung down below her shoulders, matching her sea blue eyes. Her smile was bright and cheerful, she looked like a person without a care in the world, "I'm Hayami! I'm from STORM and I'm here for field combat training."

"Huh?" was Misaka's reply. She was from storm... so did that mean she was here to attack her? But what did she mean by "field combat training"?

"I was told to come here to attack you, so it must be for practice. Battling a level five is a perfect for seeing how strong I am. Also they said something about waiting for a buse or something[2] I wasn't really listening too carefully."

Misaka sweatdropped as she listened to the girl ramble, "Do you mean they told you to ambush me?" She asked, trying to understand her intentions as well as the intentions of STORM.

"Did they?" Hayami asked confused, her smile turning into a cute little pout, "aww... that'll probably hurt my grade. Guess I gotta try my hardest in the rest of the practice to make up for it." With the last sentence her smile returned in full force, "I hope you're ready."

"Wait," Misaka began still hoping to get more information, though it seemed that this girl was as clueless as she was. Hayami seemed to genuinely think that this was some sort of training, maybe if sh could just talk to her she could get her to see reason.

But Hayami didn't hear her as she raised her hand. From her palm shot a small blue ball that zoomed a meter in front of Misaka before expanding explosively with a massive roar. It felt like she had just run into a wall and she was knocked back a step by the concussive force. "Kaminarite (Thunderhand)!" Hayami proclaimed proudly, "That's what I call my power. How do ya like it?"

Misaka recovered quickly and sparks began emitting from her forehead. 'New plan,' she thought to herself, annoyed, 'teach her a little respect then talk some sense into her.' But before she could get in a shot another ball rocketed forward and she was hit again by the concussive blast of Hayami's "kaminarite". By the time she recovered from that hit Hayami had run down the adjacent alley.

"You're it, come catch me," she yelled excitedly to Misaka.

Misaka took the bait and ran after her but as soon as she rounded the corner another sphere flew at her, exploding, driving the air from her lungs again as the sensation of charging into an invisible brick wall ran through her body once more. It hurt a little but more than anything it annoyed her and as soon as she recovered she ran down the alley and shot a lightning bolt at the other girl.

Hayami heard the distinctive crackling of the lightning as Misaka charged her bolt up though, and before she shot it off she aimed her kaminarite at the ground at her feet and fired as she jumped. The force propelled her upwards as the lightning missed her completely. She flipped twice in the air and turned her body around before landing gracefully.

Misaka was surprised at her impressive dodge. But she was even more surprised when Hayami gave her a bow and proceeded to do a handstand in front of her. Her skirt fell down revealing adorab-... childish teddy bear panties as she began to talk, "two years in the gymnastics club at elementary school plus I'm in it this year too," Hayami informed her, "I can also do origami and play the drums."

Misaka rolled her eyes. This person was crazy, completely airheaded. She turned around, deciding not to waste any more of her time in this silly fight. But when she did a blue sphere shot past her colliding with the brick wall of the building and exploding in a much smaller sphere of force. The impact completely shattered several of the bricks surrounding it and cracked many others. It was a far more powerful blast than the others, maybe even lethal. Misaka turned around immediately.

"Come on now," Hayami said, she was upright again and pouting, "I've come all this way to practice with you. It's a big honor to fight a level five, so don't just leave before our training is over."

"This isn't training," Misaka quietly, slowly tried to explain to this girl.

"Of course it is," Hayami corrected quickly, "Why else would I be sent here to have a battle with you?"

Once again it seemed that Misaka had no choice but to play along. So, with a sigh, she prepared to fire another bolt at her. She charge and shot it quickly but not quickly enough. Hayami fired her kaminarite behind a nearby dumpster, shunting it forward into the path of the lightning, blocking it. Then she fired again shooting the now charred, charged hunk of metal down the alley at Misaka.

It shot forward quickly and Misaka barely had time to react. She barely managed to repulse it with her magnetism, slowing it down before shooting it backwards down the alley at high speed where it crashed into the building at the far end. Hayami had turned into the next alley and peeked out at Misaka from behind the corner. She smiled and said, "thank you very much for taking the time out of your schedule for me. It means a lot to me." She then turned and began running down the alley happily, still thinking this was all a game.

'I suppose it's better than someone who's actually trying to hurt me...' Misaka decided as she followed her, 'I might as well humor her.'

As she turned into the alley Hayami turned around, quickly trying to shoot off another kaminarite, only to have it go high, detonating several feet above Misaka's head. Misaka began readying another shot when she heard the creaking of metal as the ladder to the fire escape above her swung downward on it's hinge colliding straight with Misaka's back as Hayami fired another shot directly in front of her as she was quickly hit from one side and then the other.

In the couple of seconds it took her to recover Hayami had already turned around the next corner. Misaka took another few seconds to catch her breath. She wouldn't run too far away after all. She was good, Misaka had to admit. She used her power and the environment well. She was maneuvering and using these alleys so well Misaka wondered if this wasn't all planned out.

Then Hayami appeared back from the corner. She gestured with a thumb down the alley she had just come from, "Dead end," she remarked before firing a kaminarite at her feet, propelling her further down the alley away from Misaka at a very quick speed.

'Or she's just blindly running around and having a lot of dumb luck,' Misaka decided following her.

She continued the chase for a while longer. They exchanged "blows" few of which had any effect at all and those that did had such little effect as to be easily shrugged off. Misaka herself hadn't gotten a single hit in, too distracted by each kaminarite burst to let off a measured, restrained shot and not willing to attack someone who was also holding back with an unrestrained bolt. But she was also quickly learning, quickly figuring out how to dodge the blasts, by the end she was hardly getting hit by any of them, but she still couldn't quite get a shot in, and now she was quickly tiring.

Hayami was still treating this like a game, "am I doing well," she asked Misaka, "well enough to pass?" Though tired herself she was keeping ahead of Misaka and managed not to run into more than 2 more dead ends. But they had gone quite a distance and they were out of the alleys now. So Hayami, trying to maintain the advantage, ducked into one of the warehouses. She ran in, Misaka still a distance behind but catching up. But as she ventured farther in the dark, nearly empty building something began to bug her. Something that Yoshinko-sama had told her. It had something to do with a warehouse... She stopped running to think, trying to remember. By the time Misaka had entered the building, out of breath and severely annoyed, she just continued to stand there deep in thought. Misaka got ready to attack but saw that her opponent seemed distracted, her back to Misaka. Misaka looked around, wary for a trap, but it was dark. Still Hayami didn't seem like the type to do something like that. So Misaka stepped forward and called out to her, "hayami-san? Is something wrong."

She turned around, "yeah... forgive me for this but there was something they told me before I left. Something about a warehouse with the Honogun sign out front. But I wasn't really listening, it didn't seem to have anything to do with practice."

Then the lights came on illuminating the mostly empty room. Around the edges were a few crates. The high ceiling was held up by numerous steel beams that rose from the ground. And several meters in front of Misaka was a large robotic exoskeleton, similar in design to MAR's troops but larger and more advanced. It was a few meters away from Hayami, but with a burst of speed it was next to her and with a swing of it's arms sent her flying across the room. "Excellent work," a voice emenated from the exoskeleton, "Honogun-sama didn't think you could actually accomplish this task but you seem to have brought The Railgun here successfully. You have done well, but you aren't needed any longer." The robotic suit turned towards Misaka. "Now it is time to fulfill my task and terminate you."

Misaka unleashed a massive spear of lightning towards it. It hit dead on but didn't seem to phase it. 'oh well, a bolt like that should have fried it's electronics at least.'

But Misaka was proved wrong when it charged forward, rolling fast on wheeled feet it attacked. Misaka quickly polarized it and herself with the same charge, when he swung his fist it pushed Misaka back but never actually made contact, saving her from crushed ribs as she soared backwards through the air and collided with a pole. her impact was softened a little by her powers but it was still enough to knock the wind from her lungs for what felt like the ten thousandth time that day.

Misaka recomposed herself. If it wasn't affected by her lightning she would need to try something else. She got a coin out of her pocket and flipped it up into the air. But before it could even reach the top of its arc, her opponent was on her again. She quickly propelled herself forward with her powers but saw as its punch ripped straight through the thick iron beam, using the rotational momentum from the blow to turn around and face her.

"Impressive isn't it?" the person in the suit said, "it has no electronics so your little lightning can't disable or take control of it. I don't know how it works but it sure does work. You're going down Railgun, you afraid." the robot rolled forward preparing for another hit as Misaka was still trying to figure out a plan and recovering. Misaka ducked low timing her dodge but the robot gained a sudden burst off speed and was upon her the next moment.

It brought it's fist back for the final blow when suddenly it was knocked off course by a sudden impact from the side as Hayami, recently recovered from her blow to the head, shot her thunderhand at the mean person. Though not enough to send it flying back the full powered blast was enough to divert it from it's collision course with Misaka into the steel beam next to her. It ripped through it suffering mild damages as it's acceleration was halted.

It would only take a second to recover from that but that second was all Misaka needed. Stepping forward she used her railgun on the robot itself, sending it shooting backwards across the warehouse, hitting the wall with a heavy crash. Then, gathering the iron particles in the dirt and air into a small Satetsuken, Misaka cut through the top of the beam which the robotic suit had just crashed through. Within a second it fell free and Misaka sent it shooting after the robot, wrapping around it and pinning it to the wall. The person inside struggled but could not free the suit from the girder. Not only that but, with the chest blocked, he couldn't even escape from the suit.

Misaka walked up to the struggling, crippled thing. "Now I need you to talk."

"I'm just an employee," the person explained, "I don't know anything."

Misaka got a coin out from her pocket, "are you sure about that?" she asked as she flipped it a few times.

"Yeah, I'm telling you, I really don't know a thing." He said, sounding very scared now.

Figuring he was telling the truth she put the coin back in her pocket and left. As she was leaving the warehouse Hayami skipped up to her.

"I guess that means we won," she remarked happily, "an interesting training session indeed. So how did I do? Did I get an A?"

Misaka looked at the girl, opening her mouth then closing it again. She sighed and patted Hayami on the head, "yeah, you get an A." She said, too tired for anything else. "But you should probably quit STORM, you know."

She smiled, "if you say so. Hey thanks again for training with me. I had a really fun time. And that robot thing was awesome, though the person was a little mean, hitting me that hard."

"Yeah, it was pretty fun," Misaka had to admit. It had been an annoying exercise in futility but it was certainly invigorating. One of the more unusual fights she had had in a while, "Take care of yourself then, I'll see you around I guess." She said in farewell as she turned in the direction of home. It would take some running to get back on time so she set off at a good clip.

"Bye bye," Hayami said waving her off before going on her own merry little way, humming a cheerful little tune as she walked into the setting sun.

* * *

Author's Note: I've said it before and I'll say it again, one of the hardest things about having a powerful protagonist is the fact that it is difficult to come up with long, interesting fights. Normally how people handle this is to make the antagonists even more powerful (which is a recipe for disastrous escalation) or introduce someone who their powers aren't effective against (which, unless done correctly, is just as boring and disastrous). I'm guilty of doing the second thing during the very first chapter and I admit that I'll do it more throughout, though I won't take the easy route and simply say "it doesn't work because I said so" and try to come up with interesting, realistic countermeasures.

However there is another way to make a battle against a super powerful person draw on long enough to be interesting without either of those methods. One of Misaka's big weaknesses is her alignment (which I'd classify as chaotic good, same with Kuroko though she has several Lawful elements to her that Misaka doesn't). Because she's good she holds back in all her fights, though less in some fights than in others. So rather than make the antagonists really powerful I decided I could make them weak but not bad people. Misaka would never give a fight against someone like Hayami her all, no matter how long it drew on. Sure in the back of your mind you're yelling at Misaka to just zap her and finish it, but it's better than the other options.

* * *

[1] Finally Saten's power revealed: the ability to remember tiny, unimportant things flawlessly. (well actually it's that wind manipulation thing, the memory's more of a made up quirk). In my mind Saten actually identifies the date of significant events in her recent life by the type of panties Uiharu was wearing that day.

[2] Once again I'd like to highlight that they are talking in Japanese. Which is where the misunderstanding came in. The word for ambush is Machibuse which she heard as machi buse, machi is a word for wait and Hayami doesn't know what a buse is. Basically it boils down to the fact that she isn't very good at listening to others.


	16. Toaru Mito no Dankai

Toaru Mito no Dankai

A Certain Unattained Stage

* * *

After making a slight detour to drop off the Capacity Down in a significantly more secure location than under her bed, Kuroko went back home. She arrived late but was surprised to find that she had come back before Misaka had.

Kuroko got changed, once again selecting something more conservative than her usual choices. As she was putting her pajama top on in the bathroom she heard the front door open and close. She quickly pulled on her pants and left. Misaka was sitting on her bed, tired, out of breath, and covered in sweat. Kuroko walked over to her and sat on her lap, smiling up at her. "Rough day?"

Misaka looked at her, "yeah, I guess," she remarked. The trials of the day finally making themselves apparent by the aching in her stiff, tired muscles. "What about you? I went to see you at Judgment but you weren't there. Saten and Uiharu told me you left quite suddenly they seemed a bit concerned."

"No need to worry about me," she responded cheerfully, "I appreciate their concern but it wasn't anything they need to worry about."

Misaka sighed, "get off," she said. Kuroko did so and she stood up, grabbing her pajamas and heading into the bathroom. She really could use a shower right now. So she went off into the bathroom and had a nice warm shower then got changed, did her homework and settled into bed with Kuroko for the night.

The next morning Misaka woke up alone once again. She heard Kuroko having a shower in the bathroom as she groggily checked her clock. 9:27 it read, causing her to panic for a second, thinking that she had overslept and was late, until she realized that it was saturday, and she didn't have school.

She sat up and stretched. She heard as the shower shut off and soon Kuroko came out. "Ah... Onee-sama," she said, "you're awake. Was I too loud?"

"No, it's fine," Misaka said, getting up to get ready herself, "hey, do you have anything planned for today? Want to do something together?" She offered. She didn't have anything to do today and they hadn't spent much time together since their "date" thing a few days ago.

"Actually I do have some plans for today; I was just about to head off now in fact." Kuroko responded

The answer took Misaka aback slightly. She thought Kuroko would leap at the opportunity. She hadn't mentioned anything that she was doing today. But then she shrugged it off. She had probably promised to spend some time with Uiharu or Saten today. "Ok then," she said, "have a nice time."

"I will. Bye." Kuroko said before walking out the door.

Misaka sighed. Despite the fact that, just yesterday, she had had a thrilling and utterly ridiculous fight against a large robotic exosuit, she found herself exceptionally bored. Even with all the trouble that Misaka seemed to attract and Academy City's advanced technologies it was still hard to find things to fill her days with.

It used to be easier. Before she had friends, before she was The Railgun she would spend her days practicing, working hard to be better. But now that was much harder to do. Any significant use of her power would cause considerable damage and probably a large-scale blackout. It had before… Though she couldn't really complain. Hanging out with her friends and having fun with others was much better than practicing by yourself.

Still, even though the others were busy she could still have fun by herself. So she showered, got dressed, and left for the arcade. She wasted an hour or two there before getting bored and leaving, wandering around town until she thought of something better to do.

As she walked her mind turned to the many events that had been happening of late. This week had seen her fresh out of one conflict right into another. Once again with an arrogant schoolmate who was amoral enough to actually try to kill her. Were all powerful rich girls this crazy? Or was it just the ones she knew?

Not only that, but yesterday's fight had made her realize a couple of things. In this conflict she was fighting her schoolmates. Her usual battles were against thugs, delinquents, or mad scientist ladies, not 13 year old schoolgirls. Some of them didn't even know what was really going on, like that airheaded lunatic from yesterday. Misaka couldn't hurt someone like that. Harsh as she was, she was no monster. Of course that was a difficult thing, considering that her enemies clearly wanted to hurt her, and they seemed to have the resources to do it. Not even The Queen had these kind of resources, and she was a level 5.

Misaka sighed. She knew she should stop worrying about this. It was the weekend, she was supposed to be having some fun. She looked down at the flyer in her hand, one she had unconsciously accepted from the girl who had been handing them out half a block ago. It was for a popular ice cream shop in town, advertising a special it was having in honor of its 5 year anniversary.

Then her eye was drawn to the bottom left hand corner. It seemed they were also offering a present to the first 100 costumers. It was a limited edition keychain, Gekota bundled up in a thick winter coat, but with sunglasses and an ice cream.

It was adorable. She had to have it. She checked the hours of operation to see that it had opened only ten minutes ago… Maybe she could just go and have a small cone…

It was a matter of seconds before the temptation overwhelmed her and she settled on her course of action. She headed off to the ice cream parlor, luckily it was nearby and within five minutes she could see the shop front from the other side of the highway. She began crossing the bridge leading over it when, halfway across, something else caught her eye.

Kuroko was walking down the street with a girl Misaka did not recognize clinging to her arm like a possessive, lovesick puppy. They were talking, Kuroko was laughing, looking so happy, neither of them noticing Misaka at all as she stood on the bridge, watching them. They seemed to be so close, as close as two people can be, as they walked into the ice cream shop.

Misaka hadn't moved the whole time she had been watching. It took a few seconds after they had gone into the shop, away from her field of vision, for Misaka to turn on her heel and walk away. She wasn't sure what she had just seen but she was sure she didn't want to see any more of it. Even her precious Gekota was forgotten as she walked back to her dorm, her stomach, for some reason, twisted and turned and suddenly she wasn't feeling that well.

She wandered home in a bit of a daze, lost in thought. Her first thought was that it was a simple mistake, a misunderstanding. That probably wasn't Kuroko she had seen, right? And not with some other girl right?

Of course she couldn't convince herself with such bold faced lies for very long. Of course it had been Kuroko, the same hair the same face, the same Tokiwadai uniform as she was always wearing. But what about that other girl? There had to be a logical reason that they were hanging out together, right?

'Maybe she's related to Kuroko, or a friend from school?' She reasoned.

But neither of those possibilities worked. She bore absolutely no family resemblance to Kuroko. And she couldn't be from school, not only had Misaka never seen her before (and she was rather distinct with her snow white hair so she probably would have at least noticed her before) but she wasn't wearing the uniform that Tokiwadai students were required to wear at all times.

'Maybe she's a colleague from a different Judgment branch.' But even that wouldn't work. They seemed far too close to just be colleague.

With each new rationalization shot down she drew closer and closer to another answer. An answer she dreaded, and tried harder and harder to avoid, but only ended up being drawn closer towards.

'Is Kuroko… cheating on me?' she asked to herself, finally acknowledging the possibility she had been trying to avoid. The thought hit her like a ton of bricks, and even as she attempted to reject it evidence seemed to creep from her memories.

Kuroko had been acting oddly recently, now that she thought about it. Yesterday she had chalked up her weird behavior to their new relationship, but now that excuse no longer made sense. She had been acting distant recently. At school she had almost completely stopped her fawning attention and public displays of clingy affection. Even when they were alone the lustful and romantic attentions had dwindled in the past couple days. The few times she did do something it was more like a joke to her than honest seduction.

All the small things that she had hardly noticed suddenly formed themselves into clear, coherent patterns. Her recent choice of more modest nightwear to the lack of good morning kisses. She hadn't missed them, so she had barely noticed when she stopped. But now she saw them and twisted them into a pattern that pointed towards one conclusion.

Now she was sure what was going on. She curled her hands into fists, all her unsure emotions turning into anger.

'What the hell?' she thought furiously, 'so she chases me for months trying to get me to notice and like her, then, when I finally return her feelings, she goes behind my back and hooks up with some other girl? How long has this been going on? How long has Kuroko been lying to me and going behind my back? Was this all some game to her? Just a fun little chase where I was nothing more than a prize to be discarded once the game was over?'

She sat there fuming for a long time before the anger finally dulled and receded. And all her rage filled accusations died away to be replaced by a single thought, a single question, 'what if it's me?' The Queen's speech from their battle rang once more in her ears. Back then Kuroko had gone through so much and the only person she could blame was herself. But she had changed. She had stopped her anger and violence towards Kuroko (for the most part) and had tried her hardest to return her affections and reciprocate her feelings.

But maybe her best wasn't good enough… Despite her efforts she had been progressing with this relationship at a pace slower than a snail through mud. She just wasn't ready for all this, and Kuroko had been nothing but patient with her. But maybe asking her to be patient was selfish. Relationships were all about compromise, and Kuroko had been the one to compromise everything so far. Misaka's responsibilities were to do little more than tolerate her.

She should do more. She should try to be a girlfriend to Kuroko, rather than hiding behind a mask of shame and secrecy about the whole thing. She resolved to change things, make them better.

But even as she thought this she realized that it was already too late for that. She had gone too long without doing anything,without returning even the most basic of Kuroko's feelings. Kuroko had been so patient for so long, and had finally gotten tired of waiting for her. She had moved on and left Misaka alone in the lurch without so much as a goodbye.

She felt betrayed, but she felt like she had deserved that betrayal. Once again she had been ignorant to the feelings of someone she cared about, and once again, because of her failure, the person she cared about was hurt. She couldn't blame Kuroko for leaving her, as so many other friends had done in the past.

Tears threatened to fall but Misaka held them back. Instead she sat silently wallowing on the edge of her bed.

That was when the door opened and Kuroko entered. "Hey there Onee-sama, I'm back." She said cheerfully, as if nothing had happened, as if nothing was wrong.

A whirlwind of emotions brewed inside of Misaka, a flurry of anger, grief, fear, betrayal, hate, and love. She didn't know what to say, what to do, what to feel. She was aware as Kuroko walked across the room and stopped right in front of her. Slowly Misaka raised her head to look up at Kuroko, ready to deliver her reckoning, whatever that may be.

But as she opened her eyes and raised her head she saw something being dangled in front of her face. Kuroko was bending down, holding something out to her. From her fist hung a keychain, a cute little one featuring Gekota wrapped up in a heavy coat with sunglasses and an ice cream cone.

"I was hanging out with a childhood friend today," Kuroko said, explaining, "While we were out I saw a flier for an ice cream shop that was handing these out as part of an event, thought I'd go and get one for you in case you didn't know about it."

Misaka reached out in a daze and accepted the keychain. She looked at it confused. 'A childhood friend?' she repeated in her mind, 'does that mean they're just friends?' this revelation shot through her, breaking up all the built up emotions inside of her, like a tsunami that had broken only halfway to shore.

She looked up at Kuroko, who was smiling happily at her waiting for Misaka's response. She received it the next second, though it was not the response she had been hoping for, when Misaka hit her hard on the head and turned away from her, baring her back rather than a smile.

Kuroko rubbed the sore lump on her head, utterly confused as to what she had done to deserve that. She looked at Misaka, about to ask why when she saw her Misaka as she sat there, her muscles all tensed up and quivering with some barely repressed emotion.

Kuroko sat behind her, curling one arm around her and holding her shaking form, while the other reached down and rubbed her back in the same spot that had been so effective at calming her the other day.

"What's wrong?" Kuroko cooed in a comforting voice, "did you have a bad day or something?"

The tears she had been holding in finally fell. She didn't know what to think any more. She had convinced herself of such an awful truth, had spent over an hour beating herself up over it, letting her emotions ferment, boil, seethe. And now that she had been proven wrong, now that all her fears were gone, why now did she feel worse than before? She had faced her fears but now that she saw they were unfounded, it felt like all her worrying, all her grief and anger, all her feelings had been for nothing.

"it's all your fault," Misaka said bitterly, wiping her tears, "making me worry like this over nothing."

"worry?" Kuroko asked, confused, "what were you worrying about?"

"You," Misaka replied, her tone switching to one of anger. Though the anger in her voice was subdued by Kuroko's gentle touch it did not extinguish it, nor all her other emotions, "you and that other girl you were with."

Kuroko considered her statement for a second. Then she realized what must have happened. A massive smile spread across her face but she kept the happiness from her voice, "oh. You saw me with Jericho? She's just an old childhood friend I met up with yesterday. We haven't seen each other in years so I wanted to catch up. It was quite a task getting her out of her apartment though; she's borderline agoraphobic and very shy. She clung to me the entire time we were out, just like she did when we were kids. She's a good friend, but there is no need to get jealous over her." Though she kept up her comforting tone she was secretly delighted by the fact that her Onee-sama was jealous over her. She was so adorable like this.

"I'm not jealous," she vehemently denied. Though, now she had heard the term she realized that that was exactly what she was feeling.

Kuroko wanted to squeal at how cute this was. She hugged Misaka closer to her and put her head on her shoulder and whispered into her ear, "don't worry, I know exactly how you're feeling, exactly what you're going through. I know just how awful it feels," her voice became less and less cheerful as she continued, "I know how scary those niggling doubts can be, and how hard it can be on you. I know the feeling of that, somehow, someway it's all your fault that the other person is doing what they're doing. That somehow, you're not good enough for them and never will be."

Then her voice perked up again, going back into the same soothing tone as before, "but I also know that, if you truly love and trust a person, then it gets easier in time. I know that jealousy doesn't last, and all those niggling doubts can be resolved, forgotten. All you have to do is accept them, accept that although there is a possibility that they might be true, that I love you enough that that possibility is almost nonexistent."

And for once Misaka understood, truly understood, how Kuroko felt all those times when she had gone off on a jealous fit whenever Misaka paid more attention to someone else. And she also knew that, if anyone would know how jealousy felt, it would be Kuroko. And as she looked at it she realized just how silly she was being about the whole thing. The whole thing was utterly irrational, she felt ashamed that she had felt any jealousy at all. Her emotions died down, burning out like a candle as she relaxed into Kuroko's hold. "Thanks… for the keychain." She said as the feeling of calm spread throughout her body.

"It was nothing, I know how much you love those kind of things," Kuroko teased, glad Misaka had cheered up. They sat there for a few more minutes, and then Kuroko said, "You know, the day's still young. What do you say I make us some food and we go out for a nice romantic picnic dinner?"

Misaka nodded sedately, just lying there on her bed as Kuroko went to the kitchen. When the calm feeling began to wear off she sat up again and stretched. Today had been as trying a day on her mind as yesterday had been on her body. She cursed herself for assuming such ridiculous things but she was glad nothing had come of it. She was confident that their relationship was stronger than that, Kuroko wouldn't leave her, she wasn't that kind of person.

But though she had confidence and hope, acceptance was still far away from Misaka.

* * *

Author's Note: This chapter was kind of fun to write. It was nice to be able to write about Misaka being jealous for Kuroko rather than the other way around without making her jealousy irrational. I mean yeah it is still irrational, all jealousy is (all emotion is really…) but it actually fits into what someone like Misaka is likely to feel.

Speaking of feelings…. It seems that, nowadays, the hardest thing about writing this is the fact that, whenever I'm writing a chapter I feel like I'd rather be writing another chapter that I already have all planned out. Not only that but I feel like I'm putting too much unnecessary detail in. Most books don't explain the actions of the protagonists each morning. But still, I dislike jumping from scene to scene without any explanation of what happened in the intervening time. I feel like I need to mention that they are going to this place and giving them a reason to go to said place, but I also feel like it is just a waste of time on the reader's part.

The other reason this is so late is because of the content of the chapter itself. I'm enjoying having the romance in this story and that was a third of the reason why I wrote this to begin with, but that doesn't change the fact that it's hard to do. I mean not only do I have to extrapolate from very different canon examples for their feelings and actions in a relationship with each other, I also need to manipulate the romance in such a way that, while creating enough drama and conflict to remain interesting, it isn't enough conflict to be off-putting, either to the reader or to the parties involved. One of the bigger problems is that most romance stories tell the tale of how the two people got together, not their happy life beyond that. The conflict is usually in the attainment not the maintenance. This makes it even more difficult to write an interesting relationship.


	17. Toaru Shigoto no Hi

Toaru Shigoto no Hi

A Certain Day of Work

* * *

Kuroko walked into the Judgment offices as happy as could be. Yesterday had gone marvelously, she had spent some time reconnecting with an old friend, then had had a nice romantic dinner with her wonderful Onee-sama. On top of that, for the first time in over a week, she had had a pleasant dream instead of the vivid, terrifying nightmares that had been plaguing her recently.

She practically exuded an aura of contentment as she took her place at her workstation, "good morning Konori-senpai," She greeted her senior, who was just beginning her own work.

Konori looked up at her, "good morning Kuroko, you look cheerful this morning," she remarked as she shuffled through the various papers on her desk, trying to return some semblance of order to them.

"I am," Kuroko replied simply, "Yesterday was a good day."

Konori smiled at her for a second then looked back down to her desk. "Well I'm glad you had a fun day off but you're back at work now and we have quite a bit of work to do."

"Hai!" Kuroko responded enthusiastically.

Konori rooted around her files, looking for something, "Actually something interesting came up yesterday," she said as she pulled a small pile of paper loose from the rest and handing it to Kuroko. The papers were crime reports. Many of them came from other branches, the few originating from Branch 177 were recent, the date of submission read yesterday while the date of incident read two nights ago. "Apparently instances of in-city street racing has sharply increased as of late," Konori explained, summarizing the reports, "While it is Anti-Skill's responsibility to respond to these races they have enlisted the help of local Judgment branches to attempt to find and notify them of any races going on. But the incidents keep hopping around from one part of the city to another, every week or so. Given the reports we've received yesterday and today it seems that they've moved into our jurisdiction."

Kuroko nodded, listening carefully as she read the details of some of the reports. It looked like there had been quite a few injuries as well as property damage attributed to these races and the ensuing car chases. Very few perpetrators had been caught, mostly due to the fact that, while Anti-skill had trucks and could quite effectively set up roadblocks, the racers and their motorcycles were far faster and more maneuverable. And even those that had been caught had offered little information. "Interesting," she said thoughtfully.

"I had Uiharu look through the reports yesterday, to see if she could find a pattern or any likely places of activity. She managed to select a few likely places. They tend to gather in remote parking lots and places like that: places with little to no security but with enough space and access to roads. I need you to install some of the temporary security cameras in the high risk places."

"That explains why you need me," As a teleporter Kuroko could get to places that would be hard or impossible for other people to get to, high places that would be the ideal spots for camera placement. She got up from her chair, "Ok. I'll get right on it."

Konori handed her a large, heavy bag and a map of the area, with several locations marked on it. Kuroko put in her earpiece, accepted the bag and map, then went on her way.

She walked down the street towards the first location in silence. It was quite a boring assignment considering that it was related to such an exciting case, but Kuroko was happy enough that she let it slide for now. When she finally got into range of the first mark, a spot on top of a random building, she teleported up and attached the mount to the corner of the roof, where it would be best suited to survey the high risk area. Then she placed the camera onto the mount and screwed it in using the tools in the bag.

"Is the link set up alright?" she said to Konori over her communicator.

For a second or two the sound of tapping keys filled her ears then Konori replied, "yes, it seems so. You can go onto the next one."

With that Kuroko teleported back down to the street, bag in tow, and began to head to the next mark. As she installed the next two she spoke casually to Konori to pass the time, "You have a motorcycle right?"

"Barely, after your misadventures last month. Why do you ask?"

"I was thinking about these street races and I wondered if, in your rebel days [1], you ever raced like that," Kuroko asked humorously.

Konori paused a little too long. Kuroko giggled as she screwed in the second camera, "don't tell me you actually did?"

"Don't you have work you should be doing?" Konori huffed, halfway between annoyed and embarrassed that her junior had ever learned of her past. Ever since their encounter with Big Spider Kuroko had frequently teased her about it, even Uiharu had done it from time to time.

"Now now, no need to be embarrassed," Kuroko said, having perfected her ability to pick up that particular emotion, what with all her recent practice and all, "It's behind you right? You don't do all that stuff anymore… do you?"

"Of course not," Konori defended immediately, "unlike some people I actually straightened up when I joined Judgment."

There was a long pause. "I'm sorry," Kuroko said genuinely, breaking the silence. Her voice sounded much sadder now, and the change in mood made Konori instantly regret her words. But before she could take them back Kuroko continued, "I really do try to do things by the book. I try my hardest to do justice, to do the right thing, and to do it in the right way. But in the end I guess I fail pretty miserably at that. Honestly I feel like such a hypocrite whenever I reprimand Onee-sama for rushing in headfirst. I'm even starting to match her excessiveness. I brought down a building, just to catch one criminal. I try to tell myself that some of the things I do are necessary evils, things which need to be done to do justice. But that's just a hollow excuse I use to try and exempt myself from being the very thing I discourage in another person. But there are things that just can't be done by the book, things that the law won't work against. Sometimes there are necessary evils. But does that mean that the whole system is just a veil to be dropped when inconvenient or even a hindrance to justice? Would it be better if we didn't discourage vigilantes?"

"Kuroko…" Konori began, hearing the distress in the girl's voice, suggesting that these thoughts had been troubling her for a while. She took a deep breath, thinking what to say to put the girl at ease, "there are times when I've wondered these exact things myself. But what must be kept in mind is that laws exist for a reason. We are dedicated to upholding the laws and enacting justice. If we can act according to the book then we must act according to the book… But there are times when that book can fail us, situations where things cannot be solved in the manner that is set forth by the rules. When there is a situation like that it is sometimes necessary to stray from the rules. But you must never forget them. Justice is always your objective; everything else is simply laying the path for it to be done."

Kuroko worked, screwing in the fourth out of six cameras. As she worked she mulled over her senpai's words, then she smiled. "Thanks. I needed to hear that," she said.

_They are called necessary evils for a reason. They are necessary. True power is willingness to do what must be done, and justice can only be established and maintained by those with power._

"I'm going to go dark for a bit," Kuroko said to her senpai as she turned off her microphone. Then, to Kuro, she said "I was wondering if you were still around, you've been awfully quiet today."

_You were happy. When you are happy and safe my presence is unnecessary, that is how it has always been._

"Yeah, but I kind of miss it when you don't talk. You may be annoying but you're still my oldest friend, and I don't like it when you're gone," she replied as she affixed the fifth and penultimate camera to its mount.

_I will never be gone; I will always be here for you. But you shouldn't rely on me. You have other friends, and a pereskia, to interact with, I'm here simply to calm you and help you deal with your problems._

"I'd be a bad friend if I did nothing but use you like that."

_That doesn't matter; I have no feelings to be hurt. I will always be here because I cannot be anywhere else. I require no maintenance. Unlike your other friends, who you need to interact with frequently, lest they take it personally._

"There are times when I question whether you're a psychopath or a saint."

_You are my world, quite literally. The only suffering I have ever known is your suffering. It is a selfish action in trying to prevent your suffering, however selfless it seems._

Kuroko sighed, "how come nobody I know can just say how they feel to other people? They all hide from what they're thinking and feeling like…" She began but stopped as she heard some noise from below. She had just teleported up onto the final building to install the last camera. She had retrieved it and the mount from the bag and activated the camera when she heard some sounds coming from the very spot the camera was meant to survey. She dropped down low, using the raised edge of the building for cover as she moved toward the source of the sounds.

She reached the corner of the building and peeked over the edge. In the little used, secluded parking lot that was near this building were 13 people. 7 motorcycles were lined up along the exit to the parking lot. The bikes were fancy, high-tech, and visually distinctive. Some of them matched those that could be seen in the photographs of the street-race vehicles that had been in the file. Aside from the bikes the only other thing in the parking lot was a large van on the far ending, near the building Kuroko was on top of.

The helmeted riders stood a short distance away from their bikes, talking to each other as well as the other people gathered there. Four of the others, all but one still in their early to mid-teens, wore blue jumpsuits smudged with oil. Kuroko guessed that these were mechanics. Another was in far fancier clothing, wearing a business suit with a briefcase, typing something out on what was either a phone, PDA, or calculator. If Kuroko had to hazard a guess she would assume he was a "bookie", someone who oversaw gambling, calculated and set odds on bets, etc…

The last one stood a distance away from the rest, sitting down with an odd device on his lap. It looked familiar and in a second Kuroko remembered where she had seen it from. She had seen it in the black market, being sold in the communications area. It monitored all in and outgoing communications in a fairly large area and could selectively jam a particular signal or frequency allowing for much greater control than large scale jammers.

'That must be how they've avoided being caught,' Kuroko thought to herself, 'anytime someone from Anti-Skill or Judgment was contacted they could be out of here in a second.' Kuroko was relieved she had turned off her communicator beforehand but wondered what she could do if she couldn't call Judgment for backup. There was no way that she could fight 13 people at once.

But as she contemplated what to do the riders began to take position. Everything seems to have been sorted out and they were ready to begin their race. She needed to find a way to stop them and quick, before the race could begin, suddenly a thought struck her.

* * *

From the office Konori checked up on the last camera. It had been activated a short while ago but did not seem to be in position. It was lying on the ground, looking across the roof into the corner where Kuroko was crouching for some unknown reason. With her communicator off she couldn't ask the reason and she seemed to be too distracted by something that was going on below. Her tensed posture suggested that it was something important.

With her communicator inactive Konori tried another means, calling her cell. But when she dialed the number a ringing came from in the room. At Kuroko's desk sat her cellphone, shaking as the beep beeps of her ringtone filled the air. "Kuroko…" Konori said exasperated as she hung up. She checked the screen again, unsure what to do. She wondered if she should call Anti-skill, but wasn't sure. She didn't know enough of what was going on in and wouldn't know what to tell them.

From the location she could guess that it was probably a group of the street racers. But she did not know how big or anything. All she could hope to do was wait until Kuroko reported in.

That plan was thrown out the window the next second when she vanished from the camera's viewpoint. Konori cursed her impulsiveness and phoned Anti-skill, hoping that Kuroko wouldn't get herself hurt again.

* * *

Kuroko sat on the roof, lining up her shot. When she had pinpointed her targets she touched the bands on her thighs and teleported the needles one by one, into the mechanisms of the motorcycle. She was unaware of the various components that made a motorcycle run, never having been a big fan of auto-maintenance, but she was fairly certainly that if a needle was preventing the spinny thing from spinning, the wheel wouldn't turn and the motorcycle wouldn't go. So she aimed for the spinny things on the front and back wheels. She managed to get them all in before the bikers revved up their motors. She watched as one of the mechanics counted and then dropped a flag, signaling the beginning of the race.

Kuroko watched with bated breath as the revved their motors and hit the pedals or whatever it was motorcycles had.

Then nothing happened. The motorcycles didn't budge an inch from their starting locations. Their wheels didn't turn and the engines made odd sounds, metal grinding against metal and motors stalling. Kuroko breathed a sigh of relief as she watched them dismount. She heard the sounds of arguments between the riders and their mechanics as they checked their cycles for the issue. Crouching down next to their cycles presented Kuroko with the perfect shot, as they bared the back of their necks. Kuroko took a deep breath the calm herself and focused. She had been training for this exact thing for several hours over the past week, Kuro had proven in her fight with Ita that the theory was sound. Now all she had to do was put it into practice.

She touched the band of needles on her other thigh and teleported them into the necks of the six riders and mechanics that presented her with a shot. It hit the mark each time and they slumped down. "What the hell!" the one closest to Kuroko at the end of the row of bikes exclaimed.

The cry attracted the gaze of the others, who checked to see what was wrong with their friend. This presented Kuroko with another great opportunity. She took one of the flash grenades from her sash and pressed the button. She counted to two [2] then teleported it right above the person, where everyone else was looking, then she shielded her eyes as little device created a massive blinding flash.

Kuroko quickly teleported down to the ground. It seemed that her little present had hit all of them. "This'll be quick," she remarked as she drew her tonfa and, digging it into the necks of the two mooks closest to her and zapped them with its stun gun attachment. They let out cries of pain then fell to the ground unconscious. The irony being that that probably wouldn't have affected them if they had worn the proper motorcycle safety gear.

With 8 out of 13 down the odds began looking much better. Especially since the others would still be flailing around for several seconds yet. Kuroko then teleported to the next one, kicking her in the stomach before hitting her over the back of the head. She too went down.

The next one, hearing the cries from the others, began panicking, flailing his arms blindly, hoping to hit something. He hit the motorcycle next to him, sending it flying away.

'Super strength,' Kuroko noted. Rather than risk bodily harm by engaging him directly, she teleported behind him and touched his back, teleporting him down onto the pavement, using the rest of her needles to pin him to the ground.

The last one furiously rubbed his eyes hoping to clear the stars from her eyes. She opened her eyes just in time to see a little girl with a Judgment armband in front of her pressing a nightstick into her stomach. She didn't even have time for surprise before Kuroko activated the stun gun, sending the last biker to an early naptime.

With all of them finished off she teleported in front of the now fleeing jammer operator, the device held tightly in his hand. He screeched to a halt as she appeared out of nowhere and hit him hard in the stomach, driving the breath from his lungs. He collapsed.

The bookie, now the only one standing, was also running away. Kuroko casually touched the folding chair the operator had been sitting in and teleported it in front of the fleeing man. In his rush he tripped over the chair, falling face first onto the sidewalk. After cuffing the operator, Kuroko teleported over to the prone bookie and quickly handcuffed him as well.

Kuroko surveyed the scene and took a deep breath, tired from all the exertion. She tucked away the tonfa and flash grenade into her sash again. Then, wasting no more time, she got to work.

* * *

Yomikawa Aiho drove her Anti-Skill van down the street at high speed . This was one of the few calls they had gotten about a street-race before it had occurred. Though the details weren't exact, the Judgment agent who had called having no specifics other than location. But she wasn't holding her breath. The other times they had been called it had started before they could do anything. They had always missed them by several minutes, no matter how quickly they arrived. It was getting to be a bigger and bigger problem.

The other problem was that one of the agents from branch 177 had seen fit to engage them already and would likely need help. She knew the brown haired girl from Tokiwadai enough to know that she would probably have tackled them no matter the odds. 'Kids today and their stupid overconfidence, making our jobs so much harder,' She thought.

But as she pulled the van up to the location she saw a very suprising sight. Not only were the vehicles and people still there but they were disabled, with a few of them being in handcuffs and others in more makeshift bindings. The Judgment agent she thought they would need to rescue was perfectly fine and was currently trying, unsuccessfully, to tie up one of the people with their own bootlaces. She looked up as Aiho exited the van and waved, walking over to her carrying an odd black device in one of her hands.

"Glad you're here, I don't have this many sets of handcuffs. Though why are you here? I don't have my cell phone with me so how did you know to come?" Kuroko asked with a smile.

"Your branch head called, said you could probably use some help. Apparently she was wrong though. Did you do all this on your own?" She asked skeptically as she and her subordinate helped to cuff the remaining crooks.

When they finished the Judgment girl handed Aiho the black device she had been holding. "What is this?" She asked as she examined it. It was a small computer-like device with a keyboard, interface, and an array of small antennae on top as well as a handle to transport it with. Across the screen scrolled huge amounts of green text and numbers which were completely indecipherable to her.

"It's a signal detection and jamming device," Kuroko responded, "that's how they've been able to monitor your communications and avoid you whenever you dispatch," She pointed towards the operator, still cuffed and lying on the ground near the van, "he was the one who was using it so he'd have more information for you."

Aiho nodded, "ok then. We'll take it from here, you can go back to your branch. Though you might want to check in with your senior first, she sounded worried."

Kuroko's eyes widened as she realized she had forgotten to turn her communicator back on. As she began walking back she took it out of her ear, held it a short distance away, and turned it on. "Konori-Senpai?" she said, speaking into it.

"WHAT THE HELL Kuroko!" she yelled loudly, "WHY DO YOU ALWAYS GO RUSHING OFF WITHOUT THINKING ABOUT IT!"

Kuroko waited for a second then, when she was sure that Konori was waiting for a response she said, "They had a communications jammer, I couldn't have contacted you if I had wanted to."

There was silence for a while as Konori seemed to calm down, "well," she huffed, "I could see the camera, you could've gotten a message to me like that."

"You could?" Kuroko asked, never having even considered that possibility.

"Maybe if you hadn't forgotten your phone…"

Kuroko was actually glad that she had now; it would have tipped them off to her presence as surely as her communicator. "Wouldn't have worked either," she rationalized, "besides I didn't rush in. I made sure to carefully survey the situation before doing anything. I was careful, strategic, and intelligent," she said defensively.

Konori sighed on the other end of the line, "I want a precise report when you get back, then I'll know whether to praise you or scold you."

"Yes ma'am," she replied respectfully before hurrying back.

In the end she got a mixture of the two. When Konori had heard about the number of enemies she had instantly told her off for charging into such ridiculous odds, then she had reluctantly admitted that she had done an impressive job in taking them all out, followed by some more scolding on how she shouldn't have done it in the first place.

Just as she was about to continue her tirades though, the door opened. Uiharu walked followed by Misaka and Saten. "Hey there Shirai-san, you done with your work yet?"

Kuroko looked at Konori-senpai who cradled her head in her hands and motioned with her hand that she was free to go. "Yep," Kuroko answered happily as she gathered her stuff and joined them near the door.

She had almost left when Konori said, "oh, and Kuroko… Job well done. You've really helped the case, just try not to do such dangerous things next time."

She smiled back, happy to receive the praise, "Hai!" she said enthusiastically before leaving with the others.

* * *

"Sounds like you had a busy day," Saten remarked as the four friends descended down the steps of Judgment onto the bustling streets below, "what case was she talking about?"

"There's been a significant increase in the number of street races recently," Kuroko replied

"Oh yeah, Uiharu was telling me about that yesterday."

"Have you made any progress on that?" Uiharu asked. She hadn't managed to help out much yesterday and hoped that Kuroko had had better luck.

Kuroko turned to her with a great big smile plastered onto her face, "yes, indeed I did, and I have you to thank for it. One of the locations you picked out yesterday turned out to be a hotspot and, thanks to you, Anti-skill managed to arrest all of the races before the race even began." She said, praising her while humbling not mentioning her own part in the matters.

Uiharu blushed at Kuroko's recognition and smiled back at her, eyes twinkling brightly, "really?"

"Yep, you helped to put away 13 criminals today and also helped to reveal some very interesting facts about the case, " Kuroko continued pouring on the accolades.

"Wow," Saten whistled patting her best friend on the back, "Nice job Uiharu."

"Congratulations," Misaka joined in.

Uiharu was glowing with joy at having been so helpful and at the praises of her friends. But what Kuroko had said had also piqued her curiosity. "What do you mean by interesting facts?"

"Ah, that. Apparently there's a whole gambling ring revolving around these races. Quite a bit of money was at stake in this one. Even more interesting is this," she said as she got her camera out of her bag. She pulled up the pictures she had taken for her report of the incident and showed the camera to Uiharu.

Uiharu looked at the cameras small screen, Saten and Misaka craning their necks to catch a glimpse as well. They stared at the picture for a few seconds before they asked, almost in perfect unison, "What is it?"

"It's a signal detection and selective jamming device," she informed them, "It's how they've been avoiding Anti-skill. They know each time someone calls Anti-Skill or Judgment. It's a high-tech and high-value piece of contraband. But it's extremely expensive and quite complicated to operate so it raises the question as to why such a device was being used in such a manner."

"That and the fact that they seem to know the locations of all the cameras, even the more well hidden ones," Uiharu puzzled, "it is quite interesting."

Kuroko turned around to face her Onee-sama, who was quiet and looking thoughtful, "Onee-sama, you understand that just because the word 'interesting' pops up in relation to a case doesn't give you permission to interfere… right? I don't want to see you get hurt trying to do our work."

Misaka huffed, "I wouldn't get myself hurt, and I'm not trying to interfere," she defended, slightly indignant, "besides, weren't you the one being scolded for doing something dangerous before we arrived?"

"But I was doing my job," she argued.

"what did you do anyway?" Uiharu asked, "Konori-senpai seemed pretty mad."

"Knowing Kuroko I bet she charged in and attacked all of the people without a plan or backup," Misaka said bitterly.

"Hmmph," Kuroko responded, folding her arms and turning away from Misaka, "How mean. Just for that you don't get a good night kiss tonight," then, a second later, "well… okay, maybe one or two."

Misaka blushed and averted her eyes, embarrassed but not even able to scold Kuroko properly. Saten rolled her eyes at their childish argument but smiled slightly, "To be fair that does sound like you." Uiharu nodded in agreement with Saten's statement, and asked, "if you didn't do that what did you do?"

Several seconds pause followed before Kuroko quietly muttured, "I kind of had a plan…" Saten laughed at her response and even Uiharu giggled. Misaka, on the other hand, just sighed exasperatedly, "She charges at 13 people and lectures me about being impulsive."

Kuroko turned away from the three, annoyed. 'So Uiharu tells me where to go and she gets "congratulations". I singlehandedly take down 13 criminals and I get mockery.' _To be fair you were the one who praised her the most while not going over what you did at all._

She was just about to retort Kuro's statement, forgetting for a moment that the others were there, when suddenly a person, speeding along the sidewalk like a deer on the run, crashed into her. The impact knocked her over, sending both of them crashing onto the ground painfully.

"Ow…" Kuroko said, rubbing her head as she looked up at the person who had collided with her. But the other person spoke before she could get a single word out.

"Kuroko?" the person asked.

Kuroko was surprised to see that it was a familiar face on top of hers, "Birdy?"

Birdy quickly got off of her onto her own feet as Kuroko did the same, "uh, sorry. I mean, I kind of…" she stammered. Then she seemed to have some sort of realization, "hey do you mind helping me out a bit here?"

"What with?" Kuroko asked, unsure what was causing her newest friend to be in such a rush.

"I don't really have time to ex-" she began but was interrupted as a boy landed next to her and grabbed the large blue bag that was hanging from her shoulder. Then he leapt, high, far, and fast landing several meters away before turning back to them and grinning, "Hey thanks for the present. Don't worry, I'll make sure it gets into the right hands." He taunted before trying to leap off again. However, as he pushed against the ground to jump away he realized that his feet were stuck, he couldn't move them at all. He looked down at his feet, confused, and saw that, embedded in several places throughout each shoe were long white needles that were pinning him down. He tugged at his legs trying to free them when a girl suddenly appeared beside him and yanked the bag he had stolen out from his hands. He reached for her but she disappeared the next instant.

"Here you go," Kuroko said, handing the bag back to Birdy.

Birdy smiled as she accepted it and said, "thanks for the help. As I said before this job can get pretty… competitive."

"No problem, are you ok? Who was that?"

"Yeah I'm fine. A bit tired though. He's a rival runner trying to obtain what I'm delivering for his own employers. He's been chasing me for a while. I don't handle stopping too well so he would almost catch up to me when I rounded the corners," She explained, "I guess this means I owe you one eh?"

"Of course you don't, friends help each other right?"

"Right. And I think I have something that could help you. You know those things you're looking for. Well I haven't heard anything more about them but I think I know of someone who might. He's an information broker." Birdy whispered

"A what?" Kuroko asked, whispering back, unfamiliar with the term.

"An information broker. It's someone who you can go to see with a question and he'll answer it for a fee. This one is named Riko, he's the best. The families go to him all the time. He seems to know just about everything."

"Would this happen to be illegal?" Kuroko asked in a weary voice, not wanting to add something else to her long list of recent offenses.

"N-" Birdy began before stopping. She looked thoughtful for a second before continuing, "no."

"Ok," Kuroko sighed. The hesitation did not grant her the greatest confidence, but it sounded fairly harmless. 'How illegal can getting some information be?' "Where can I find him?"

Birdy gave her an address and said, "I believe he'll be in all day tomorrow, but I'm not sure. He can be pretty hard to track down sometimes."

"Thanks for the advice." Kuroko said

"No problem, thanks for your help," Birdy replied, "see you later." She then said as she began heading off into the distance using the same odd, flowing skating motion as she had before. It propelled her faster and faster across the ground until she was nothing but a dot on the horizon.

"Who was that?" Misaka asked, confused and just a little bit angry at what had just happened.

"A friend of mine, her name's Birdy." Kuroko answered simply.

"Oh I see… just another friend who you've never told me anything about," Misaka said rolling her eyes.

"No need to be jealous Onee-sama," Kuroko said soothingly, hoping to defuse the situation as quickly as possible. How things were going she would have almost preferred to stay behind and continue being chewed out by Konori. 'And yesterday had gone so well too…' "I just met her last week and I haven't talked to her that much since. She helped me out and she's really nice but it didn't really seem all that important to talk about. Not that you ever really ask about my life anyway." Though she had said the rest calmly, the last sentence came out as a little more bitter.

"What in the world does that supposed to mean?"

"Well, Onee-sama, when was the last time you asked me how my day went huh? When was the last time you were interested in my work unless it involved some big case that you find need to stick your nose into? But the minute I make a single friend outside of work you go into this fit because I didn't tell you. Well frankly my dear Onee-sama, you never asked." The frustration from the past hour slowly vented itself through each word, giving them a cutting harshness that did not quite reach the level of true anger.

"So I need to ask to know anything that's happening with you? I need to get permission to know about something as important as a new friend?" Misaka retorted. Her jealousy had faded and was now replaced with pure and simple anger.

When she heard this Saten bristled from the sidelines. 'Sure you keep a boyfriend from all your friends for months but when Kuroko keeps a friend a secret for a week…' She thought to herself. Sure she was a little offended at first but it wasn't that big a deal. She was more annoyed by this fight, it was so childish. "Come on Uiharu lets go get some ice cream. These two can continue fighting like an old married couple." Uiharu nodded, glad to escape the conflict herself, though wishing her friends would stop fighting.

Misaka rounded on Saten blushing heavily, "W-what?!" she exclaimed with an embarrassed nervousness in her voice, "We're not… I mean, we… Kuroko," she said pleading for aid from the girl she had been fighting with not a moment ago.

But Kuroko was staring off into space with a distant, jovial smile. "Married couple…" she repeated dreamily. In her mind she heard wedding bells ring and saw an image of her, looking gallant with a pure white suit, exiting a church to a marvelous white carriage, her Onee-sama in her arms in a beautiful matching wedding gown.

"What!" Misaka exclaimed, even more embarrassed now than before, "why am I the one in the dress?!"

"It would suit you better no? Accentuate all your most pleasant attributes," Kuroko replied lustfully.

The tone of Kuroko's voice sent shivers down Misaka's spine and make her beet red face pale slightly. She turned around in a huff, "see if that will ever happen…"

Seeing the opening Kuroko instantly made her move, sliding up behind her Onee-sama and rubbing that small spot on her spine that calmed her down so well in the past, "don't worry, I plan to," she whispered, this time in a loving, caring voice rather than a lusty one.

At Kuroko's touch Misaka's body instantly tensed up only to relax the next second at her gentle stroking. Soon her anger died down to a dull ember.

"Are you two done arguing," Saten asked, completely confused as to how these two changed gears so quickly. Kuroko had gone from angry to flirty with a couple of words and Misaka switched from angry to embarrassed to angry to strangely calm in the space of 5 seconds, all with seemingly no provocation.

"Yeah, were done," Kuroko replied, standing beside Misaka as her hand continued covertly stimulating her chakra, "aren't we Onee-sama."

Misaka responded with a dull nod, wishing simultaneously for Kuroko to get her damn hand away from her back and for her to continue.

"Good. Now I want Misaka to stand in front and Kuroko to stand in back so it stays that way," Saten said with the authority of a mother, trying to contain her grin as the high level Oujo-sama's followed her commands instantly.

After that their day continued without any further trouble. Misaka was too embarrassed to cause anymore issues, avoiding speaking to Kuroko at all where possible. Kuroko, meanwhile, was thinking of her own problems. This information broker sounded like a good lead but she wasn't sure, she had never dealt with anything like it before.

_So? You hadn't experienced anything like the black market before but that turned out fine, even profitable. This will go fine, and I'll be right there with you in case you are about to screw something up._

She gratefully accepted Kuro's advice, even if it did not instill her with the greatest confidence. She would simply take things one step at a time and hope things worked out.

With that worry off of her mind she delved back into her dream world, smiling brightly as she savored the mental image of her and her Onee-sama's wonderful wedding.

* * *

[1]: Konori's current age is 16 and she was 14 when she was in Big Spider. She was 15 at most when she joined judgment (about 10 months minimum before the show begins). This would mean that it would likely be impossible for her to be driving when she was still in her "rebel phase" as I called it. But looking at it logically it is highly probable that Academy City would have a lower driving age than the rest of Japan (which, for motorcycles, is 16 years). Given that it is made primarily of students, probably has extremely safe cars and motorcycles, etc… it is not impossible.

[2]: The temptation to use a Monty Python reference here was almost irresistible.

* * *

Author's Note: I was questioning whether or not to do this chapter alone or to pair it with the next chapter. I'll end up pairing it with the next chapter, but for now I'll put it as a stand-alone (complex). I'm sorry that it isn't related to the plot (I don't like introducing dangling plotpoints but it is a necessary evil at times) but I just noticed that I don't really have much that isn't plot in my story, well plot or fluff(but those are two of the main ((if not the only)) reasons people are reading this so…). I don't really look in on their daily lives like the show did and so I decided to do that. Since Kuroko has a job whereas Misaka does not I decided to focus first on her. I hope it was worth the wait and that you enjoyed reading.

Edit: I decided, rather than pairing it up with the next chapter, I'd simply write an extra bit and tack it on to this chapter, giving it extra length and connection to the rest of the plot.


	18. Toaru Shiro no Line

**Important Note**: (as of August 8th 2012) I have added a little bit to the last chapter, which is important to understanding the beginning of this chapter. Sorry for the retroactive writing but please bear with me and read it. It's at the very end so you don't need to reread the whole chapter though.

* * *

Toaru Shiro no Line

A Certain Line of White

* * *

"Why must you be so freaking embarrassing?" Misaka asked in a voice loud enough to convey her ire but quiet enough to avoid the dorm mistress's fury. The two girls were back in their room much later that day, having spent quite a bit of time shopping with their friends and hanging out. Now they had returned and Misaka was ready to unleash everything she had stored up that day.

"I don't see why you're complaining, I spent maybe ten minutes looking at those dresses," Kuroko replied innocently.

"While talking about which colour scheme would be best for our wedding. I thought you promised to keep this whole relationship low key."

Her tone of voice made Kuroko pause. She took a step closer to Misaka and looked her in the eyes, "you're really upset with me aren't you?" she said, slightly taken aback by how seriously she was taking this ordeal.

"Of course I'm upset stupid. You were acting like a complete idiot, fawning over which dress I should wear to a wedding that ain't gonna happen. It's only been a week, and besides, if you hadn't noticed we're way, way too young to even start considering it." Misaka was still 2 years away from the minimum age and Kuroko was 4 years away. Even if this relationship lasted that long she would never drop school for a marriage.

Kuroko's eye twitched involuntarily but her soft smile didn't falter. "Excuse me for a second," she said politely before teleporting away to a nice secluded spot outside in the back of the dorm buildings. Here nobody could hear her, she was all alone. Only now did she let the smile drop, to be replaced by an altogether more hostile expression, "too young, too young, too goddamn young!" she seethed, "I'm tired of hearing that all the freaking time. I may be twelve but I'm no child and I'm DAMN TIRED OF BEING TREATED LIKE ONE." She felt like hitting something but the only thing around was the wall and Kuroko wasn't stupid enough to punch solid stone purely out of anger. She would save the urge for when she went to train her martial arts. Right now she took a deep breath and teleported back into the room, calmer than before at least.

"You're right Onee-sama," she admitted, smile back on her face, "It is too early to begin talking about it, but I can still revel in the fantasy can't I?"

"Revel all you'd like just don't do it verbally," Misaka responded. Kuroko stepping out had given her a little time to calm down as well, which was probably why she had done it.

Kuroko bowed, "forgive me my love, I simply lost myself in the joy." She said with a genuine tone of voice.

Misaka turned away from her, "you are so embarrassing, you know that."

Kuroko silently crept up on her and whispered seductively in her ear, "and you are so cute when you are embarrassed." She said and planted a short, sweet kiss on her cheek.

The same shiver from before ran down Misaka's spine, "that doesn't make me feel better about it," she said as she pushed Kuroko away.

Kuroko sighed and decided it would be best if she left Misaka alone for the rest of the night.

* * *

After that the night, morning and next day at school all passed by normally. Despite their fight they still slept together, ate together, and went to school together as if nothing had happened at all. They made no more mentions of the fight, both pretty much forgetting about it by the last bell of school. They were used to having fights, and were used to working past them.

After school Kuroko had Judgment work and Misaka had nothing better to do, so the two walked together to the office. Saten and Uiharu were already there, as was Konori who was currently buried in her work with Uiharu while Saten sat on the couch and read a magazine she had brought.

"Ah, Shirai-san, you're here," Uiharu said noticing the opening door. She waved her over, "we need your help."

So Kuroko went over to them while Misaka joined Saten on the couch. "What's up?" Kuroko asked them.

"It's about yesterday," Konori informed her, "Anti-Skill has run into a little problem in their investigation… or rather they haven't."

"Huh?"

"That thing yesterday, the jamming device. They said they looked into it but could find no information regarding it. There was no information on it anywhere, and it was the first time they had seen such a thing. They would have no idea what it was or the significance of it had you not told them… which brings up the question how exactly you knew. They were hoping you had more information and that you could tell them your source."

"I don't really have any more information actually. The only reason I knew it was a jamming device is because I don't see why anything else would have a big red button with the word "Jam" on it."

Konori sighed, "that's what I was afraid of. Yesterday supplied a wealth of information but it looks like this lead is pretty dead."

"What else are we following?"

Uiharu piped up to answer that one, "well one of the guys had some money in his briefcase, along with a lot of slips of paper, like receipts that seemed to list how people and dollar amounts. It's like you said yesterday, there is a whole gambling ring centered around this. But unfortunately the people aren't named, there just given a series of numbers, so we can't track them down. And the money retrieved was a relatively small amount. So there isn't much information from that lead either."

"So basically we have nothing?" She said, annoyed.

"Don't be like that Shirai-san," Uiharu said comfortingly, "I mean you were the first person to stop a race before it began, plus you arrested 13 people. That's awesome."

"Not really," Kuroko noted. Her power was not one of mass destruction after all. She could quickly finish a single opponent but compared to Misaka's ability to take out 20 opponents in the same amount of time, it kind of paled, "anyway, if we have no leads I'll go and see if I can dig some up, the races are still continuing right?"

"Well yeah but…" Uiharu began, but before she could finish Kuroko teleported off.

Konori sighed, "she's always so restless when she gets on these cases. I'm going to go as well, one of us should be on patrol at least. Uiharu, you stay here and provide backup like usual ok? And no goofing off." She straightened up her desk and stood up to leave, "And you two, don't distract her understood. I don't mind you being here but try not to cause any trouble for us."

"Hai," they confirmed as Uiharu went over to her work station. When she logged in and brought up the necessary program she let out a sigh, "it seems Kuroko's turned off her microphone again."

_It's probably a good thing the device had such an obvious function. Otherwise our knowledge might have raised more suspicion than it did. You need to be careful what knowledge you let leak._

"I know I know. This whole thing aggravates me though. If I use my knowledge from my… less tasteful ventures I raise suspicions but if I don't then I feel guilty. And then there's the promise I made not to use the knowledge to investigate anyone from Birdy's 'family'"

_It would be best not to use the knowledge to investigate anyone. We can still use it in the future, but I don't think we would be able to if we made an enemy of them. Besides, their crimes are hardly the jurisdiction of Judgment. They're under the jurisdiction of the various government agencies that deal with such things, Judgment deals with local misconduct and delinquency._

"You do have a point… but it still feels wrong and then there's this whole thing with Riko, the information broker. Is that legal? Is that right?"

_I don't see how it could not be. It's just information, knowledge. Police use people like them and call them "crime consultants". You need to ignore all these "feelings" of yours and focus on the rationality of the situation._

"One of us needs to feel, or else we'd be nothing more than a robot. But you have a point… If the information is used for good then who cares if I had to pay for it."

_Exactly._

With that settled for now, Kuroko got back to work.

* * *

Back at the Judgment office, after being told off by Konori, Saten and Misaka decided that they shouldn't hang around here and distract Uiharu. So the two girls went off to waste time elsewhere until the two got off.

"So… how's the boyfriend doing?" Saten asked.

"Every day I wonder how someone can be that annoying. Yet I can never bring myself to hate him… It's just so… ugghh."

She giggled, "well that's love for you. No matter their flaws you look past them."

"Isn't that what friendship is, not love? You can feel the same for anyone without having to love them."

Saten looked off into the distance, "they're similar and sometimes the line between them blurs."

Things were quiet after that, and after a short, awkward pause they resumed talking about less… embarrassingly accurate things.

* * *

After half an hour of fruitless investigating followed by an hour and a half of standard Judgment work, Kuroko clocked out and headed to her other business of the day. Taking out the small slip of paper Birdy had given her yesterday she started towards the address listed.

It wasn't long before Kuroko found herself at her destination. The building she stood in front of was one of the many towering skyscrapers located in the northern regions of District 7. It stood at 15 stories tall with a flat roof, though part of the building seemed to extend a story higher than the rest, creating a sort of two-tiered, somewhat awkward looking thing. The dull white exterior had occasional widows of varying sizes along its somewhat irregular face.

Her gnawing doubt, though not as strong as it had been, still made her hesitate before the door for a moment, and then she opened it up and walked into the lobby.

The building did not belong to any single company, but rather rented out its office space to many different companies, like many other skyscrapers in the city did, so the lobby was little more than a small room with a couple of couches and some fancy potted plants. The rest of the first floor was taken up by the storerooms and offices of other various businesses.

Kuroko walked over to the elevator at the very end of the room. Next to it was a large wooden board which had the names of all the businesses printed on it as well as the floor and room number(s) on which they could be found. The slip of paper Birdy had given her had said it was the floor 16 so she looked at the listings for that floor. Since it was significantly smaller than the other floors there was only one single listing for it: Simurgh Associations. The name was written in roman letters and seemed to be a foreign word; she wasn't even sure how to pronounce it.

But still, despite the fact that she wasn't sure of the name of where she was supposed to go, it was the only one on the top floor, so she guessed it had to be it. So she entered the elevator and pressed the button to the floor 16. Soon she was standing in front of a luxurious oak door with a shining prismatic plaque that read "Simurgh Associations: We think so you don't have to". Despite her nervousness she had to roll her eyes at that. She reached up to the doorknob and opened the door, stepping into the room.

The office seemed to be one single room, though a large one. Bookshelves lined the walls as well as a couple of doors on each side. A desk rested at the far end, framed by a large window that displayed a brilliant vista of the city. On it sat two monitors, one on each end angled towards the center. Behind the desk was a large soft-backed chair, though its occupant was nowhere to be seen.

The door had been open and Birdy had said he would be in, but Kuroko could not see him anywhere. 'He's probably in one of the side rooms doing some business, I guess I'll just wait in here.' So she decided to look around the room. The bookshelves were full of books of all types and lengths, several were even in other languages. In the wide open area between the front door and the desk were a few chairs set here and there as well as what looked to be a chess set resting on a small table near one the wall on the right. Kuroko walked over to the board and examined it. The pieces looked handmade, carved from rock with a considerable bit of skill. Kuroko picked up a piece. It was smooth and looked quite new, the rock shone with the brilliant sheen of polished obsidian. "Kuro," she remarked. The piece she held was the black knight, and the valiant figure atop his noble steed couldn't help but remind Kuroko of her own knight in dark armor. _At least you didn't make me the bishop._

"I'll take Shiro then," said an unfamiliar voice. Kuroko turned to the source. A tall, lanky teen, maybe 18 years old leaned on one of the bookshelves. His demeanor was casual and welcoming, like he was inviting her into his home rather than his office. His face was lit up by a wide, playful smile. And though he looked like a nice friendly person Kuroko was still put a little on edge by his eyes. She had heard the term "to undress someone with your eyes" before, but he felt more like he was dissecting her with his. His gaze was piercing, hawk-like, catching each and every detail it landed on and analyzing it, "pawn E to E4." He said.

Kuroko put down the chess piece in its rightful place, "I'm not here for a game. I'm here for business, you're Riko right?" She said, though she moved to white pawn to its designated spot anyway.

"Despite your words you certainly seem interested in a game, and come to think of it so am I. I am indeed Riko, by the way. We'll do business as we play, would you care for some tea as well?"

Kuroko opened her mouth to protest but decided against it. She had been expecting someone more... shady. This cheerful hospitality and casual atmosphere was a welcome surprise, even if his gaze unnerved her slightly, "Some tea would be nice, thank you." She said politely, then, when he had turned around to go into one of the side doors she said, "King's knight to F6."

After a minute Riko came back with the tea. Kuroko had taken a seat at the table and he set a cup on the table in front of her before taking a place on the opposite side and making his move. "So Kuroko, what can I do for you?"

Kuroko looked at him and rolled her eyes, "Ok... I'll ask. How did you know my name."

"The way I see it people come here knowing what my name is and what I do. I don't like being at a disadvantage like that so I make sure I know as much about the person coming to see me as they do about me. What kind of information broker would I be if I couldn't do that much."

"Well then, do you know why I'm here?"

"Nope, if I did I would've said so already. I do like showing off after all, it adds to the mystique. I do know that it's your first time at a place like this, you're far too nervous for a veteran. Which does make me curious. What great question could have brought a Judgment agent to my office here on the thin white line of the law? I doubt it has to do with your current case, it isn't too complex, and besides that you made considerable progress yesterday. Given your overconfident nature you wouldn't come here when you think you could still solve something by your own. Of course there could be more to you than it seems, your playing is remarkably defensive and well thought out considering how impulsive you seem."

'Actually that isn't my playing,' she thought to herself. _Move your bishop to F5._ While Kuro was telling her what moves to make she was considering what Riko had just said. The thoroughness of his knowledge on her was more disturbing than amazing. Though most of that could be considered common knowledge it was his information on the case she was working that was most disconcerting. No ordinary person should know yet, the only civilians she had told were Saten and Misaka. "I guess you are pretty good," Kuroko remarked, "I'm here because I need to find something. Suitcases with sound systems embedded into them. There are six, built by the inventor called Jericho."

"Ah yes, the capacity down systems. That is indeed quite an interesting query. I don't quite know the current locations of all of them yet, but I can tell you that none of them are available, they've all been sold, does that matter to you?"

"No." Kuroko responded simply.

Riko chuckled, "even more interesting. Well then I can find out the owners in relatively short order. So let's discuss payment. I accept three forms of payment, money, information, or entertainment. If you give me information in return for the information I give you I can lower the fee or even drop it entirely if it's good enough."

"I get those two but what exactly do you mean by 'entertainment'?" she asked, confused.

He grinned in response, "Simple. I love my job, I really do. I love working with all the knowledge that I can get my hands on, hoarding it like a dragon, and handing it out to others in small doses and seeing how that little drop of knowledge can spark out of control. The money is more of a side effect than a goal. That's why I can sometimes be convinced to waive the fee if the information I'm giving out will have particular entertaining results. This is not one of those cases however, so unless you have some information the fee will come to 50,000 Yen."

"Quite the price for someone to whom money is but a 'side effect'."

"I'm the best at what I do, so my prices can afford to be a bit steep. Besides, the more money it costs the more it encourages others to dispense information to lower said cost."

It was a tempting offer but Kuroko was hardly willing to just give out information on her classified judgment work just to lower the price. Besides, her parents didn't monitor her expenditures so she could spend as much money as she wanted without a hint of suspicion. 'You need to care to be suspicious after all.' "Fine, I'll pay. Do you accept checks?"

"Yes, though it's been a while since I've last had to. Most people prefer not to leave a paper trail you understand. At least my customers don't." He said jokingly.

Kuroko didn't respond, simply taking out her checkbook and writing out the check, then she handed it to him. "Here you go. Thank you for your time but I'll be going now."

"No, thank you," Riko replied as he took the check, "and we'll have to continue this game sometime, it's turning out to be quite interesting." He saw her nod before closing the door.

When she was gone he reclined in the chair and smiled, picking up a small metal instrument from the table where it had suddenly appeared just a moment ago. It was a bug, a little surveillance device of his own design, he had planted it on the girl back when he had given her her tea. "Yes… this game is quite interesting indeed." He retreated back into his sanctuary. "Let's learn a little bit more about this Shirai Kuroko shall we? She could be quite fun."

* * *

Author's note: yeah… sorry this took me so long. A week for one of my shorter chapters... Anyway I hope you enjoy despite the wait. My big announcement for this chapter is that I got a beta reader, so that's cool.

Other than that… not much to report. I'll get the next chapter in as soon as I can, I promise. Until then, (various forms of goodbye followed by an exit-stage right)


	19. Toaru Tsugi no Iki

Toaru Tsugi no Iki

A Certain Second Wind

* * *

Misaka sighed as she walked down the streets. She had parted company with Saten a while ago when she had decided to go back to Judgment to see if Uiharu was done with her work yet. She had been invited to join her but right now Misaka needed a bit of alone time. It had been a tough weekend for her, quite emotionally jarring in an already high stress situation like she currently found herself in, what with this whole STORM ordeal.

Misaka found the conflict distasteful and the person behind it even more so. But what truly aggravated her was the fact that she couldn't tackle the problem head on. Her enemy went to the same freaking school and yet she was more elusive than The Queen. She couldn't be touched in school, and couldn't be touched out of school. This was not a problem she could solve by normal means.

But then came the question: How could she solve it? Could she at all? Was she fighting an unwinnable fight? Even if she fought with them out of school, she couldn't hurt them too badly. They could just go running back to Yoshinko, ready to attack her again and again.

She mulled it over in her head, happy to take her mind off of everything else that was going on. 'Yeah, this whole thing is just one big mess. No wonder I was so aggravated this weekend. It's just the stress...' It was a good distraction, and a good excuse.

She continued wandering for a bit longer, lost in her thoughts. However she was jarred from her concentration by a familiar voice, though she couldn't quite place it's owner. It was a light, happy voice, laughing a short distance off. She looked over in the direction.

It was coming from the nearby park where several little children were playing with a teal-haired girl in a Tokiwadai uniform. Recognition soon set in, it was Hayami, from a few days ago. The first STORM member she had been attacked by. Though attacked was hardly the right word for the event. Attacks usually inferred some hostility existing between the attacker and the attacked.

Misaka wondered what she should do, or if she should do anything. They had not parted as enemies. Misaka wasn't sure if they had ever been enemies, and Hayami seemed to judge her as a friend, though Hayami seemed like the type to judge everyone as a friend. At the end of the last fight she had requested that she drop out of STORM... maybe she should go and say hello, ask how she was and maybe learned what had happened after that. 'It would be best to confirm who my "enemies" are and aren't after all.'

So she strolled on over to the park. Hayami saw her as she came over and waved to her with a smile on her face just before being tackled by a couple of the six year old children as the rest of the group of 8 gathered around her. "Gotcha Hayami-Onee-chan!" one of them cried out happily. Hayami giggled, "yep, ya got me." she said to the child, then she turned to Misaka, "heya there Misaka-senpai, here ta play?" she asked in that same fast, happy voice that she had had before, though her speech was considerably more casual than before, and the accent showed through.

"uh... actually I'm here to talk."

"Ya came to a playground ta talk? A little odd but oh well. Who ya here ta talk to?"

"You," Misaka answered simply.

"Well I'm here ta play so we'll have ta compromise," Hayami remarked, then she knelt down and talked to the children, "hey how 'bout a game of hide and go seek? You guys hide and me and Misaka-Onee-chan will go and find ya." The idea was met with approval and she smiled at them, "k then go and hide somewhere, but don't wander too far, wouldn't want ya to get hurt or lost now would we?" They nodded and all ran off to find hiding spots. Hayami turned back to Misaka, "We can talk as we look right? Then everyone gets to do what they want."

"Uh yeah I guess," Misaka said. This girl was odd but still, her warm, kind demeanor brought a smile to Misaka's face.

"So what did you want to talk about?" she asked, then she began to count, "one, two, three"

"Just wanted to see how you were. Wondering what happened after that thing,"

"Ten, Eleven, I got fired, Thirteen"

"Huh?"

"Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty. Ready or not here I come." She finished counting off, then she looked at Misaka, "I got fired. I was gonna quit, like ya told me ta. But then Yoshinko-senpai asked what happened. I told her there was a big robot but that ya defeated it. She got angry and said that I had failed her, then told me ta leave. She has a very low tolerance for failure, ya let her down and she kicks you out. Kinda harsh really but oh well." She said as she begun scouring the park for the hidden children finding one hiding quite obviously behind a tree. "Found ya Kiki-chan"

Misaka considered Hayami's words. A plan was beginning to form in her mind. Perhaps there was a way to win this. If she really reacted badly to the failure of her underlings perhaps they couldn't just go running back to attack her again ad infinitum. Maybe a single victory would do. After all if they weren't part of STORM they no longer had reason to attack her. It might just work.

The only problem was she had no idea how she was going to pull that off. She couldn't just sit by and let them come to her again and again. Nor could she let them hurt her friends again. But she couldn't just attack them either. She couldn't do it in school and she had no idea where to find them out of school.

"Kinda a pity though, now I won't get ta use that warehouse any more." Hayami rambled on.

"Huh?" Misaka asked, "warehouse?"

"Yeah. The warehouse with the robot. It used ta be where I trained. That's why most people join factions, ta get access ta various training facilities they might not otherwise be able to access on their own. That's why STORM is so popular. Yoshinko-senpai let us use the warehouses of her family's company ta train in. she even helped customize each one to suit the person training. Considering most of the people in STORM have fairly destructive powers, a place where you can train without hurting other people is important. All the crates and stuff in that warehouse were great targets, it's a pity I only got to play there for a couple of days. But at least I managed to help while I was there, moving the crates over to the truck to be loaded and stuff like that."

"So each member of the faction has their own warehouse?" Misaka asked, trying to stop Hayami's rambling and direct the conversation to more useful lines of questioning.

"Nah, some people don't have one, some people share one. There are quite a few but not enough , especially considering the influx of new recruits."

"Do you know where the warehouses are?"

"I wasn't in STORM for very long so no. But my friend's been in for a long time now, she should know. Her name's Mai, she's really nice and sociable. I know where you can find her... kinda."

"Kinda?"

"Well it's one of two places... but I can't remember which. I remember hearing the address of one of them while I was helping the people load up this massive crate back when I was still in STORM and I can't seem to remember which is which."

'It's still something,' "Tell me both and I'll check them out." She said.

"Oh, sure, that works." she said as she said both of them, finishing the second just as she found the last child, hiding underneath the jungle gym. "Found ya Gen: you're the last too so come on out and we'll go see the rest." They went back to the other seven children, "now how 'bout I treat ya to some ice cream," Hayami said to them all. The idea was met with cheers, "Yay, Hayami-Onee-chan is the best!" They cried.

One of them looked over to Misaka, "are you coming too Misaka-Onee-chan?"

Misaka smiled, "I'm afraid I can't. I have something I got to go do now."

"Aww... will you come back again sometime?"

"I'll try ok?"

"Let's go then," Hayami said, "bye Misaka-senpai," she said waving farewell. This was followed by a chorus of "Bye Misaka-Onee-chan." as the kids went off to get their ice cream with their playmate.

Misaka went off now. She slightly regretted not going with them but she had hatched a plan, and now all she needed was one last thing. "If only my source was slightly more reliable," she sighed, but truth be told it was more than she could have hoped for, surprisingly informative for the ramblings of an airhead. She would check one of the places right now, and hope it was the right one. After all the odds were 50-50, and even if she picked the wrong one she might still not be attacked. And even if she was attacked she was sure she could beat the other person... then she would have one less enemy to worry about later on. Then she would check out the second warehouse if need be.

So she made her way to her first destination, chosen from the two with a coin flip. After a long walk there she arrived later on in the evening, when the sun had begun to set in the sky. She walked around first, scouting out the building and surrounding area. It was a large building, though not very tall, set in one of the many regions in Academy city which held many such buildings. It was sectioned off into two distinct parts, one larger and one smaller. However the larger portion had no visible means of entry. The smaller section had a set of large garage doors to allow trucks in as well as smaller doors beside the large ones and in the back of the building. When she was done searching Misaka chose to enter through the latter, for simple virtue of being both nearby and unlocked.

The inside of the building was far less cluttered than the other warehouse. The few crates lay neatly against the wall rather than strewn all about. The few lights that were on provided a dim glow. Through the poor lighting she couldn't see anyone in the building but she took a few hesitant steps into the building to look further. As she walked the lights began turning on in response to her presence. Each row turning on as she walked down. The atmosphere in here was hot, heavy and humid, far more so than outside, there was also a pungant scent of fuel hanging in air. It was unpleasant and slightly tiring. Misaka paused when she was a third of the way in and began to look around as the progression of lights continued without her.

Suddenly she heard a noise, a loud hiss. She turned to look at the source of the noise. Twenty light blue canisters let out their contents spontaneously, and all at once. The canisters read O2 and had the standard diamond warning label.

Then Misaka heard another noise, a voice this time, coming from the other end of the warehouse. "well well well. What do we have here? If it isn't Misaka Mikoto, Ms. Ace herself. I was just about to leave to, how serendipitous that I caught you." The tone was all too familiar, that haughty mocking tone that she had heard far too often recently. However the voice itself was not familiar. She looked at the girl who stood at the other end. She wore a Tokiwadai uniform much like Misaka herself. She was much the same height but looked slightly younger. Probably a first year. Her bearing was the standard Ojou-sama pomp. Her jet black hair was short but cut in an elegant style.

"Who are you?" Misaka asked her.

The girl put her hand to her chest, "I am Sozoku[1] of STORM."

"Ah," she replied simply. It seemed that this was the wrong place after all. "I guess I'll be going then," she said. She didn't want a conflict unless it was necessary. Even if she was in STORM she wasn't necessarily guilty.

"Where do you think you're going so soon eh? Didn't you know that you're STORM's enemy now? You think I could just let you leave?"

She sighed and turned around. "Look," she began, "this whole thing is just..." she stopped suddenly. She couldn't breathe. Or rather, she could but it wasn't working. She inhaled deeply but the breath felt odd, failed to fill her lungs and satisfy her need for air. She felt as if she was drowning in a sea of air.

Sozoku was grinning at her Misaka returned with a glare, not saying anything in an effort to preserve the what little air she still had in her lungs. "You really shouldn't be so dismissive you know. So how do you like my power eh? I can control the oxygen concentration in air. A simple power, nothing like yours, but you'd be surprised how useful it can be, given how vital oxygen is to the body. You don't last long without it." She taunted.

Misaka looked towards Sozoku. She had wished to prevent conflict but now that she had levied the first act of aggresion, all bets were off. Misaka raised her arm towards her, ready to finish this quickly with a lightning bolt. But the instant the first spark cleared her palm a large ball of fire erupted on the spot. Misaka reflexively shielded her face with her arms. The fire lasted for less than a second but it was hot. Misaka's clothes and hair weren't ignited but her arms probably suffered some minor burns.

A slow clap came from the other end of the building. "Bravo bravo," Sozoku said sarcastically, "how brilliant, using electricity in a high oxygen environment. What's your next tactic? Breathing fire on a keg of gunpowder? Hitting some nitroglycerine with a rock?"

Misaka bristled at these comments. She could win even without her lightning. She magnetized the air and gathered the iron particles on the ground to form her Satetsuken. Her opponent was unarmored so she did not make the particles vibrate, not wanting to hurt her that badly. Still, even without the cutting power it was a powerful weapon, more than enough to defeat this girl.

She raised the makeshift handle above her head the black cloud swarming above her as her eyes locked their steeled gaze upon Sozoku. But she appeared completely undeterred at the swarming mass of razor sharp iron particles. She only said, "predictable," in a bored tone of voice.

This irked Misaka even more and she swung downward, sending the cloud right on top of her opponent. But instead of the mass of black crashing down upon her head, it was a cloud of red dust that wafted downward between the two. "You really aren't too bright are you?" Sozoku said in the same bored tone as before, though this time it held a much more intense hint of malice, "Don't you know what iron does when exposed to humid air and oxygen? It rusts[2]. Such small particles in such a high oxygen environment take seconds to rust. And rust isn't magnetic."

This wasn't good. Misaka was being outmaneuvered easily. Hayami had mentioned that each training area was customized to suit the person who used it. She was fighting on Sozoku's territory.

She underestimated STORM's members once again, and this one wasn't playing like Hayami was. She was running out of air too. She considered running for a second. She glanced back at the door. It wasn't too far off but her pride made her reluctant to leave.

"oh ho, thinking of running away are you?" Sozoku said, noticing her momentary glance to the back door, "I don't think so." she said as she pulled out a match. She made a show of striking it against her skirt to light it. Then she casually tossed it to the side. It flew through the air for a meter then suddenly burst into a much larger flame. The fireball lit a wall of fire which trailed forward past Misaka and wrapping around behind her. Unlike before the fire stayed much longer this time, cutting off Misaka's means of escape for several seconds. Then Sozoku took out another match and said, "move and the next thing to burn will be you."

But now she didn't have to. Misaka had noticed something, the match hadn't erupted into flames when it was first struck. That meant that the region around Sozoku wasn't high oxygen. In fact the match had only had a tiny flame, so it was probably lower than average to prevent the fireballs from hurting her. All Misaka needed to do was get close, but the minute she moved Sozoku would burn her alive. She had a plan for that, however.

She stood completely still. When she saw this Sozoku grinned, "oh it looks like you can follow commands. I guess I just need to keep it simple for the slow little puppy. Stay. Good girl." She mocked.

A few seconds later Misaka took off towards Sozoku. "tsk, looks like you're a bad dog after all. Time to punish you." She said as she began to strike the match. But as her hand brushed her skirt a lightning bolt arced between the fabric and her skin. The static electricity that Misaka had slowly, carefully charged the air with made Sozoku's arm go numb and caused her to drop the match.

This delay allowed Misaka enough time to get close and grab her blazer. She saw Sozoku's eyes grow wide a moment before she shocked her directly. Despite her anger she reined in the voltage to just below her usual incapacitation levels, adjusting for her smaller mass.

She collapsed in a spasming heap as Misaka took a deep breath. The air around her still had a lower oxygen concentration but it was better than nothing. When she had finally recovered she turned to leave.

But before she could even take a step, the door that went into the larger section of the warehouse burst open as another of the robot suits burst through the door. The design of this one was different however. On each shoulder was a set of four large clamps reminiscent of the claw of the suit that that awful Therestina woman had been in. They were considerably smaller but they seemed to be deployable in much the same fashion. And if they could then... she looked over at Sozoku. She was an unpleasant arrogant person but she could be killed by those things, and Misaka couldn't just stand by and let that happen. But what could she do.

She thought frantically but not fast enough. The pilot took aim and pushed the fire button. But as the clamps slid downward, lining up with the target, a small spark was produced by the friction of the grinding metal in the still static filled air. This small spark erupted in a massive fireball. The force of the explosion pushed the suit backwards just as the clamps were firing, sending them shooting way off course, into the ceiling where they tore through most of the steel support beams.

Misaka, untouched by the fire in Sozoku's low-oxygen zone, saw the oppurtunity. As the pilot's vision was cloudy and his suit reeling, she shot off towards the ceiling, magnetically clinging to the nearly ruined beams. She had to act quickly. She took a small plastic container out of her pocket and opened the top. Ever since she had fought the human lightning rod in district 17 where there had been no iron sand in the surrounding ground to use for her Satetsuken, she had been carrying around a small container-full, in case of emergencies. It was only enough for a small circular-saw-like blade but that was enough. She used it to quickly slice through two parts of the beams.

After a few seconds spent dazed by the explosion the pilot recovered. He pressed the retreival button for the clamps and looked to reacquire his target, only to see the girl had gone from the spot. She scanned from side to side but saw now sign of her. Then something caught his eye. He looked up to the clamps that had gone wide off their mark to see that they were reeling back in carrying a large hunk of steel from the beams in the ceiling. Perched on top of this hunk was the girl. "Fu-" the pilot didn't even have time to swear before the huge piece of steel collided with the suit sending it staggering backwards as the beam bounced off, itself deformed by the blow.

Misaka jumped off the beam moments before impact, landing behind the mech and readying her sand saw as she spun around to face the massive machine's back. Then she saw, housed on the back of the machine, what looked to be the machine's power supply. Misaka smiled, happy some part of the battle was going her way as she reached out and shocked the battery, pumping it full of electricity and overloading it. It sparked dangerously before exploding in a small upward plume of fire and shrapnel, shutting the suit down.

Misaka heard as the chest opened and something soft hit the ground. 'Hopefully this pilot knows more than the last one' She thought as she walked around. However it appeared that this one had been knocked unconscious by the impact and the explosion.

She sighed annoyed at the complete waste of time this had... She looked again at the pilot and noticed something. The suit he was wearing was the exact same as the other one, even though the robot was different.

From what she understood of powered suits they operated in two parts. The outer layer and the inner layer. The robotic exterior was only half of the device. The inner layer was actually far more sophisticated than the outer one. It was what the pilot wore and acted as the controls using advanced neural uplink technology. In even more advanced suits it could even heighten the user's cognitive abilities and reflexes, allowing their mind to function in high enough capacity to utilize the suits' capabilities in ways a normal human couldn't.

Normally a single inner layer could only be used for a single outer layer, yet this one seemed to work with two, or even more. Not only that but they were also made by two different manufacturers. The outer suit had the Honogun logo proudly displayed but, on the back of the inner suit, was the name of a company Misaka didn't recognize:Vulcanus Industries.

Misaka reexamined the scene but could gather no further information, so she simply left with a sigh. She was tired and she still had quite a walk home without much time to do it. She would have more time for this investigation later on.

Kuroko sat on Misaka's bed, relaxing and thinking. As she was thinking she glanced over to her bed. It was made and perfectly neat, a state it had not been disturbed from for almost two weeks now. The only purpose it had served recently was a place to hide things under.

The idea that she was now sleeping with her Onee-sama every night was almost unbelievable, but it was true. Even if it was for a far more... "PG" reason than Kuroko would have hoped, but things would change. "Someday, someday soon we'll be lovers." Kuroko declared with a smile.

Kuro found it hard to hold her "tongue" here. But this time she had to. She knew that this was one thing she could not talk to Shiro about, knew it would do nothing but anger her, and Kuro wanted Shiro's happiness, even if it meant staying silent about this most dire of grievances.

A minute or so later the door opened and her Onee-sama walked in. She looked tired and dirtied. She had probably been in a fight... again. Kuroko rolled her eyes but decided not to lecture her, instead greeting her with a "hello Onee-sama."

"Hey," she replied briefly before going into the bathroom. Kuroko heard her start a bath.

She waited on the bed until a few minutes after the water stopped running then stood up and went to the bathroom door. She opened it and poked her head in with a smile, "Would you like me to wash your back Onee-sama?" she asked as she gazed into the stunned girl's eyes.

'3...2...1...' Kuroko counted before moving her head backwards, moving with the shampoo bottle that her Onee-sama had just thrown at her, lessening the impact. It still hit hard and it still hurt but not quite as badly. She exaggerated the impact though, like usual, flinging herself dramatically backwards onto the floor, looking up at the ceiling and rubbing her head where the bottle had hit, "oww..." she said.

She could've teleported away, she could always teleport away. She had always known that. She was a trained martial artist with reflexes honed further over the years by her use of teleportation. Her Onee-sama's clumsy attacks had and would never actually hit her without her permission. But she allowed it each time, preferring Onee-sama's anger to be let out by a quick whack on the head and a bit of yelling rather than building up into a lasting grudge.

Speaking of yelling, "what the hell you ecchi! Baka! Don't come in when you know I'm taking a bath!" Misaka screamed in anger.

Kuroko just layed there, slightly relieved that she was angry now. The moment she had walked into the room Kuroko knew there was something up. She seemed troubled, even more so than this morning. She was a little bit worried.

"You left the door unlocked," Kuroko said, more as a statement of fact than an excuse. It had been conclusive proof that something was bothering her. Normally she never would have done such a thing with Kuroko as a roommate. "What's bugging you. Is it what I did yesterday? Are you still angry at me?"

"No. It's just that... uggh, can we talk about this later?" Misaka said confused by the caring tone of Kuroko's voice. It was becoming harder and harder to tell the difference between perversion and concern with Kuroko.

"You're brooding and unhappy. We can talk about it later but I'm your girlfriend and I don't like to see you unhappy."

"Kuroko..." she began quietly then sighed, "it's not you... or not all you. Yes, yesterday and the day before were... not the most pleasant of experiences, but that's as much because of me than because of you. It's just that lots of things have been going on and it's just... uggh... it's making me so damn frustrated." She said getting angrier and angrier, "It's all so messed up. I was forced into some stupid, pointless contest that got us both hurt. And just when I think that's the end of it suddenly there's this whole thing at school with the factions that gets all my friends hurt. And the whole thing just so happens to be my fault for being in that stupid contest that I was forced into. Every single step has been a disaster which sets off a bigger disaster. Nothing is going right."

The next instant she felt Kuroko's arms wrap around her in a hug, her head resting on Misaka's shoulder. It would have been a sweet, comforting gesture had she not still been in the bath. Because of that, instead of feeling warm and fuzzy, her anger just grew exponentially, "Kuroko..." She began in a warning, voice tinged with barely restrained rage, then she noticed that she was shaking and her voice became concerned rather than angry, "Kuroko...?"

"Something's gone right," Kuroko said, interrupting her, "don't say everything has been a disaster unless you mean everything. Things may be bad but I have you and you have me, which means it's good enough for me."

"You're unhappy too," Misaka said, "You claim to be happy but you've been more hurt than anyone else. You smile but you're as troubled as I am. Your nightmares have been getting worse too. How can I be happy when you aren't?" Forgetting her state for a moment Misaka turned and hugged Kuroko back, "you need to be happy Kuroko. You're much prettier when you're happy."

"It would make me happy to see you happy. I work so hard to show my love and make you happy... I want to see you as happy as you make me. So if you are going to ask me to be happy you have to promise me you'll work on being happy as well."

Misaka looked into Kuroko's eyes for a second then leaned forward and gave her a chaste kiss on the lips. "I promise," she said, blushing at her bold move. But it had the desired effect, Kuroko's face lit up with a true, happy smile as she stood up and left the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

'Maybe some parts of this aren't so bad after all.' Misaka thought.

* * *

[1]: Another dual language pun. Sozoku means "heir". Unrelated to the word for air in japanese but a homophone in English. (Yes I am so bad at using puns that you need to be bilingual to understand them at all...)

[2]: I have mentioned before my adherence to the laws of science in my fanfictions which is why I put a massive amount of research into this part to see if it was even possible. In her Satetsuken Misaka most likely uses magnetite, which is what is commonly meant by "iron sand". Magnetite is highly magnetic, however it is already an iron oxide so I wasn't sure if it would rust or not. As it turns out it can, though the rust isn't quite the same composition as common ferrous oxide (which is the red stuff).

* * *

Author's Note: After receiving considerable positive feedback I decided to once again include Hayami in my fanfic. I'd also like to take this opportunity to give a response to the popular theory that she is behind the whole STORM thing while Honogun is simply a scapegoat. I am sorry to say that this is not true. The real mastermind behind this whole affair is the Shiba Inu in the control room. (bonus points if you can figure out the reference)


	20. Toaru Kishi no Monogatari

Toaru Kishi no Monogatari

A Certain Knight's Tale

* * *

It was shortly after that incident that Misaka's embarrassment set in. She had just gotten out of the bath to dry herself when she realized that she had forgotten to bring her pajamas in with her. Not willing to simply walk out there with just her towel on, she knocked on the door to the main room to grab Kuroko's attention, "hey Kuroko, can you get me my pajamas?"

The next breath would normally have been a warning against trying to teleport inside with them or similar antics that would annoy her but at the thought of the warning she realized something. Kuroko had been in here before… while she was in the bath…naked…

Her eye twitched as she realized what exactly had gone on and she blushed a deep crimson hue. Why? Why had she done that? Why, when Kuroko was acting all vulnerable like that, did she take leave of all her senses to comfort her? Dammit! What was she thinking?!

But the worst part was yet to come. Now that it had happened once she would see it as an invitation. Next she would be trying to come in the bath with her. Kuroko already had so little respect for her privacy, now it would be even worse.

She shook her head. She could not allow that, when Kuroko comes barging in here, like Misaka knew she would, she would make it abundantly clear that any more stunts would be met with swift and fitting retribution.

But once again her fears were unfounded as, instead of teleporting in here with them, the pajamas simply appeared on the towel rack. They weren't even some of Kuroko's "mature sleepwear", just her regular old Gekota pajamas. She felt relieved but also a bit silly. She knew that she wasn't giving Kuroko much credit. she had been so much better behaved in recent days but Misaka still treated her with the same suspicions as before. But old habits die hard. And with all this change that was going on in her life, she found herself clinging to those old habits harder than ever.

She sighed and got dressed, then left the bathroom to find Kuroko at her desk with a couple odd, yet familiar devices in front of her. She looked at Misaka for a second and smiled, "Did I get you the right pair?" she asked, referring to the pajamas.

"Yeah, thanks." Misaka replied slightly sheepishly, still embarrassed about what had happened.

"You're welcome," Kuroko replied, "actually if you could do me something in return." She said as she picked up two grey cylindrical things. They were about as large around as her thumb and a few centimeters longer than her middle finger. Misaka was confused as to what they were but the moment she held one in her hand she knew.

"Capacitors?" she asked, though she hardly needed confirmation for that she was still curious as to what she was supposed to do with them.

"Yep, could you recharge them for me?" Kuroko requested with a smile, then she handed her another pair, though these were smaller, around half the size around three quarters the height. Holding them in her hand Misaka could tell they were batteries, and extremely high capacity ones at that.

"Uh… sure… I guess," Misaka replied as she touched the heads of the capacitors and batteries, and used her powers to bring them back up to full charge. Then she carefully handed them back to Kuroko, "here."

"Thanks," Kuroko said then turned back around to her desk. Misaka was about to ask her what the batteries were for when Kuroko popped the capacitors into the fist-sized glass and metal container on her desk, then she put the two batteries in another pair of strange devices. But these were things Misaka had seen before, they were the nightstick things that Kuroko had used in her fight with Ita (though she noted that the colour was different, matte black instead of the shiny chrome it had been before), which meant the other two were those flash things.

Misaka had been curious about them at the time but worry and anger overrode that curiousity and after her little excursion for vengeance she had forgotten about them. Now, seeing them again, the curiousity returned full force. "what are those things?" she asked.

"Law enforcement aids," Kuroko replied simply as she put them back. She knew that this line of questioning would come up eventually and had decided that now would be as good a time as any, seeing as she couldn't recharge their power sources with her Onee-sama's powers and having no way of getting her to do it without her knowing what it was for without arousing suspicion.

"From judgment?" Misaka asked. She hadn't heard anything from Uiharu about equipment updates like this. She could not see them putting weapons in the hands of volunteer schoolchildren either, far too much potential for abuse.

"**For** Judment," Kuroko corrected, "They're not standard issue. I bought them with my own money."

"Why? You're an exceptional combatant, aren't marital arts enough?"

"You flatter me Onee-sama. In many cases it would be enough and it has served me well so far. But in certain situations using martial arts is difficult, even impossible, to pull off without hurting someone badly, either the user or the victim. And I have, many times before, emphasized the folly in putting too much stock in one's powers. So I decided to get these. They were specially designed to be used by law enforcement agents to pacify and detain criminals while causing the least amount of damage possible."

Misaka nodded. A moment of silence followed then she asked another question, "Why did you decide to take up martial arts in the first place?"

"A few different reasons. The main one being that, ever since I was six years old I wanted to join Judgment. At the time my powers were feeble so relying on them at all wasn't really an option. So I choose to enroll in a martial arts school. I had decided to go with a high ranking dojo, a small one but one that had a very good record of success with its students. Money wasn't an issue and I didn't really give a second thought to whether or not I would be turned away because I was a kid." As she began spinning her tale the memory of that particular event came back to her in detail.

* * *

So, late morning one weekend, she had decided to go to this dojo and start her training. On her way she had come across a small, frail old lady carrying several bags. She seemed to be struggling with them.

Back then Kuroko had been fascinated with fairy tales, like many young girls her age. But whereas most of those girls longed to be like one of the princesses in the stories, Kuroko longed to be the dashing knight that fought the dragon, rescued the damsel, and saved the day while Jericho was her princess, the one whom she protected and served. The dragon of the story changed frequently, sometimes it was the newest kid who was trying to bully them, sometimes it was a thing, an obstacle in their road of progress that they personified as a fire breathing lizard. Whatever it was Kuroko was proud to say that she had never lost to it.

Over time she became even more taken with it and had developed a few of her mannerisms around the ideal of the brave knight. Her bearing and speech became that of a nobleman rather than a schoolgirl, she cut her long hair short and began dressing and acting more like a boy than a girl. But outer appearances were not the only changes. She wanted to be the perfect knight and knew that it was more attitude than looks. So she had tried to become the ideal, brave, strong, chivalrous. She had decided that she would work hard to maintain justice and peace. She would become judgment itself and fight all the dragons that hounded the innocents of the world and help them live lives of happiness and freedom.

The knight in her saw this frail old lady loaded down with heavy bags and knew that her help was needed. She immediately walked up to her. "Hello obaa-san, can I help you with those bags," she offered kindly with a smile.

The old lady favored her with her own kind smile and said, "well that's mighty kind of you deary, but I wouldn't want to trouble you."

"Oh no, it's no trouble at all," Kuroko insisted.

"Well then, thank you very much." She said as she handed Kuroko a couple of the bags.

To Kuroko's surprise they were very heavy. Despite her vision of herself as a dashing knight, her body was still just that of a six year old girl after all. But she did not allow her strain to show on her face, instead she simply stood up straight and acted as if it was nothing at all. The façade earned an amused smile from the old lady as she began walking. "Thank you very much for your help young miss. could I ask for your name ?"

"Sessha[1] Kuroko," she said in the tone of voice that she had been practicing for the past couple weeks. It was a perfect knight's tone: proud yet humble, regal but not kingly, steeled with resolve and righteousness, but softened by kindness and generosity.

The girl's archaic choice of words as well as her bearing caused her to chuckle, "well then, it's good to meet you kuroko-dono[1]," she said, putting every bit as much weight into her words as Kuroko was doing, "I'm Mui. It's still a ways to go until my home so it will be nice having someone to talk to on the way. So tell me, what are you doing out and about?"

"I'm going to go to a dojo to learn martial arts."

"Oh really? What's a girl your age want to learn martial arts for? Is there someone you plan on beating up?"

"Of course not. There are people I want to protect though. I want to become a fearless knight of justice. I'm plenty strong already but I need to be stronger in order to protect everyone from all the evil in the world. Isn't that what martial arts is all about? Protecting people?"

At the earnestness in Kuroko's voice, Mui gave a hearty chuckle, "I suppose you are right. You are a smart and kind young girl to realize such a thing. Many people see martial arts as a tool used to hurt rather than protect. You will make a fine knight one day."

Kuroko beamed at the praise but remembered that knights needed to be humble, so she cleared her throat and said, "I can only work hard and to my best to make my way to my goal," Then she remembered that knights needed to be polite and grateful, "but I thank you for your praise." She pondered for a moment to see if she had missed any more of her tenets of knighthood and after a quick countoff she confirmed that she had not and smiled again. Being a knight was a hard job, but the simple reward of a princess's smile after being rescued from the dragon made it all worth it.

They continued the trip, spending the next few minutes in silence. The heavy bags took a toll on Kuroko, her arms ached and her weariness quickly grew. Seeing this Mui looked at her and said, "we still have quite a bit further. Are you tired?"  
"Yes." Kuroko answered honestly (honesty was one of the principal virtues of a knight after all).

"Do you want to take a break?"

"Yes," Kuroko said, "and that's why I'm not going to. Kuro says that only by pushing beyond one's limits does one grow."

"Sage advice, this Kuro sounds very wise."

"She is. She's so smart, she tells me a lot of stuff and is very good at listening. She's very nice too, my best friend along with Jericho. Jericho's also my princess and my wife."  
"Having a princess for a wife... you're very lucky."

"Very," Kuroko affirmed.

So, braving on despite her aching muscles and weary body, they eventually made it to the bui-

* * *

"Kuroko," Misaka interrupted, "Stop rubbing your head against me and get off my lap."

She stopped for a moment, "If I stop the nuzzling can I stay on your lap?" She asked.

"No, now get off before I zap you off," was Misaka's aggressive response.

"Puu~ but you're so comfy and warm..."

"I'm not your chair!"

"At least let me stay on until I finish my story?" Kuroko pleaded

"rrgh..." Misaka growled. She was growing more aggravated but she was also intensely curious. Kuroko never talked about herself. To Kuroko the past was the past and she generally left it alone, this story was one of the rare chances Misaka had to learn a little bit more about her roommate (and girlfriend) and so, eventually, her curious overpowered her aggravation. "Fine," she huffed.

"Can I continue the nuzzling?" Kuroko asked.

"Don't. Push. It." Misaka warned in response.

Kuroko pouted but gave it up as a lost cause. So with a sigh she continued her story, adding slightly more detail than before to try and extend the story and this blissful situation.

"Anyway as I was saying..."

* * *

Braving on despite her aching muscles and weary body, they eventually made it to the building where the old lady, Mui, lived. She smiled at Kuroko and said, "thank you very much for your help. Would you care to come in and have some tea with me as a little thank you?"

* * *

"Kuroko," Misaka said warningly.

"Oh, sorry," Kuroko said, stopping her affectionate nuzzling again, "I didn't realize I was doing it," she explained honestly before continuing.

* * *

Kuroko gratefully accepted and the two walked into the building. As they entered they heared footsteps as a woman's voice said, "is that you grandmother? Are you back from shopping?" As she finished speaking she had arrived at the entryway. She was tall and slender, with clearly defined muscles and shoulder-length black hair. "Ah, welcome back. Who is that with you?"

"This is Kuroko, she helped me carry the groceries all the way from the market. Kuroko, this is Ami, my granddaughter. Ami, would you be a dear and put some tea on for us and our guest?"

"Yes, Obaa-sama, right away," Ami replied respectfully.

"While she's doing that would you mind carrying those bags into the kitchen Kuroko-dono?"

"Yes ma'am." She responded doing so.

Soon she was sitting a ttheir table. Ami poured them cups of green tea and then poured one for herself, sitting down. Mui was, with more than a hint of amusement in her voice, telling the tale of their trip and what Kuroko had told her. Hearing it from someone else Kuroko was slightly embarrassed but still she maintained her prideful demeanor.

"So you're trying to learn martial arts eh?" Ami asked once the story was finished, amusement in her tone as well, "Which dojo were you planning on studying at?"

"The Seiei Dojo. They're quite prestigious and have a very good reputation. Plus their fighting style is quite interesting and unique."

Mui chuckled heartily, "well isn't this an interesting turn of fate."

Kuroko looked at her curiously and asked, "what is?"

"Well Kuroko," Ami answered, "you happen to be sitting the Seiei Dojo. I'm Ami Seiei, the sensei of this dojo."

"Oh," Kuroko remarked, in a poor display of how surprised she was, "Well I guess that's lucky, my legs are kind of tired and more walking would be even more painful." She took a sip of tea, acting exceptionally calm and mature like the awesome person she was.

* * *

Misaka rolled her eyes, "don't mess with the details Kuroko, you sound like one of those arrogant snobs you hate so much."

"Your words wound me Onee-sama," Kuroko declared dramatically.

"Just continue your story," Misaka said, eager to hear more.

"Your wish is my command Onee-sama," she said as she continued with the story as requested.

* * *

"I'd bow but I'm not sure how to do that at a table like this... so I'll just ask you like this I guess... I would like to become your student, will you have me?" she stammered, a little nervous at this turn of events.

Ami frowned slightly and shook her head, "sorry but you're too young, I can't accept you as a student." Hearing this Kuroko deflated slightly, disappointed at her answer.

"Oh pish posh," Mui said waving her hand dismissively, "If you won't then I will. I taught you everything you know after all, and I haven't had a student in quite a while, it might be fun."

Kuroko quickly grew chipper again. "Really?" she asked, excitedly.

"Of course. It's the least I can do to help a knight in training after all."

Ami sighed, "well it's your dojo after all, I can't order you around. But I suggest that you don't. Remember your age, and hers too."

"Age doesn't matter as much as you'd think. Her intentions are pure and noble, and she has a lot of potential and determination. Give her a year as my student and she'll be able to beat any one of yours."

"Is that a bet?" As Kuroko would later find out, Ami could never resist a wager when offered.

"It is," Mui confirmed.

* * *

"And thus began my martial arts training," Kuroko said, finishing up that part of the story.

"And what happened after that?" Misaka asked.

"Well after that I began my training, every day after school. The Seiei martial art form was similar to judo but had many other aspects in it as well, apparently it was derived from some sort of ancient martial art that Mui-sensei was taught by her parents. It was a practical martial art, taught for self-defense rather than sport. I learned a lot from Mui-sensei, not just martial arts either. She was a very wise woman. She used to say."

"Martial arts is, in essence, the art of restraint. Anybody can hurt someone, martial artists, however, can do the same amount of damage using far less energy. So many fighters go all out in every punch, every blow. But this is a weakness. A true warrior must learn how to use just the right amount of power to accomplish their goals. This is especially important in long, drawn out fights where you must face multiple opponents or a single skilled one. When others burn their energy you must learn to conserve yours, using it only when the opportunity is right."

"Of course this is not the only important factor. Efficiency is another key factor. If one wishes to accomplish the same thing with less energy then they must do it correctly. The energy focused on the spot where one's target is weak. Aim to take down an opponent quickly and with as little energy as possible."

"That piece of advice actually helped me more than anything. Looking back the training I did for it was quite fun as well," Kuroko said with a smile. She preferred to leave the past where it belonged, but every once in a while it was nice to dig up her few good memories and look them over.

"What was the training you did for it?"

"Well, you see, to try and teach me the importance of striking at structurally weak points, she set up a model house and said that I would need to destroy the house by breaking only a single pillar. I thought it was impossible, and normally it would have been, but she assured me that she had built it with this test in mind, and it could be done. She gave me all the time in the world, and so, rather than immediately trying my luck, I spent the next three days studying architecture and thinking the problem over."

"You thought a problem over?"

"Back then I was a little more humble, and quite a bit less confident. So yes, I thought it over and when I finally was ready to try out my idea, I succeeded in the first attempt. I got treated to ice cream for that."

"What about the wager?"

"Well, after a year of training, I faced off against one of Ami's students, as stipulated. However, even though she loved betting and winning those bets, she wasn't going to send a black belt against a seven year old. The student was still skilled, having trained for longer than I had and he was twice as old. I wore a face mask as well as the standard safety helmet so that his conscience wouldn't bother him about hitting a little girl during our fight."

"We both stood, facing each other on the mat, sparring gear on and the fight began. He lunged at me, going for a low sweep, trying to get me off balance for a grapple. However his attack had been full force and exaggerated telegraphing it well in advance. So I shifted my already low center of gravity even lower and interposed my foot at the point of the arc where his knee would be swinging. This allowed me to block his attack while hardly expending any energy and dealing some damage."

"It continued like that for a while, as I blocked his attacks and evaded his grapples using as little energy as possible, while he was pouring his all into every attack. Soon he got tired, his attacks and reactions getting slower. Seeing that this was the perfect time to finish the fight I waited until his next punch. When he swung I grabbed onto his fist and pulled it towards me, then I pivoted,trying to throw him over my shoulder. I kicked his shin as I pivoted to set him off balance and flung him hard onto the mat. After that it was a simple matter to pin him and claim victory."

"After that fight I continued training under Mui-sensei for another year. Sometimes I would face a student of Ami's but I was always victorious. After the end of the second year I even got to fight Ami. I remember that I had almost lost the fight quite early in, she was far more skilled than me after all, when I used my ability to teleport her to the mat as she was getting ready to flip me. It was the first time I had ever teleported something that big and the first time I had ever teleported anything organic, and I was quite proud of myself, I was even more proud when I proceeded to pin her and claim technical victory. I thought it was a bit hollow myself, having only won because of my ESPer powers, which Ami didn't have. But she claimed that they were as much a part of me as my fists and using them in fights was only natural. She encouraged me to find ways to incorporate teleporation into my martial arts."

"But after that fight Mui-sensei told me that I would have to do that on my own, saying that she had no more to teach me, but to keep on practicing and improving on my own in order to realize my dream of becoming a knight. Though I kept visiting her until a few years after that when she died of old age."

"I'm sorry," Misaka said reflexively.

"It was the second funeral I ever went to," Kuroko said, frowning at the sad memory.

There was silence for a few minutes until Misaka decided to move on to less depressing topics, "So what ever happened to your dream of being a knight? You sounded like you were so eager about it back then, but this is the first time I've ever heard of it."

"Something happened and I decided I wouldn't make a very good knight after all..." Kuroko answered vaguely, "actually, Onee-sama, I think you'd make a much better knight than I would. You're far more heroic and dashing, even if you do lack certain other qualifying aspects." She rested her head on Misaka's shoulder and closed her eyes. She imagined once again their wedding, but this time, instead of a dress, Misaka was dressed in a suit of armor, with Kuroko struggling to carry her. The image made her chuckle

"Um.. thanks?" Misaka responded, not sure how much of that was a compliment and slightly uncomfortable with Kuroko's current position.

"and if you're the knight," Kuroko began in a slightly tired voice, "I guess I wouldn't mind being the dragon who eats the knight."

Due to her naivety she didn't quite understand what Kuroko had said, and so she simply sat there confused. Then she realized that the story was over now, and remembered the terms of their deal. "Kuroko, you're done with the story, get off."

However it elicited no response, she was about to move onto threats when she realized that Kuroko had fallen asleep, on her lap, arms around Misaka's neck, using her shoulder as a pillow. Misaka shook her head. It wasn't worth the fuss, she decided. So she simply turned off the lights and went to sleep as well.

* * *

[1]: "Sessha" is an old fashioned personal pronoun typically used by warriors. It is a modest term and her statement can be translated as "I am Kuroko, your humble servant" or something similar. "Dono" is also an old fashioned term, an honorific that means something similar to sama but without the implication that the speaker is necessarily of a lower rank. She uses it to poke fun at Kuroko.

* * *

Author's Note: First, just a little information about the chapter itself. The story that Kuroko is telling Misaka is not, word for word, the story I am telling you. It's greatly shortened and the conversations don't play out like dialogue like they seem to.

Now onto another matter, the matter of characters. First of all the topic of original characters. In one of my comments I received a suggest to make a sequel starring Hayami, one of my many OC's. It is an interesting suggestion but one I doubt I will act upon, for one reason. I have a rule about OC's and that is that OC's should never be the protagonist, nor a protagonist's love interest. I have this rule for the simple reason that, when it is a character of your own design, it is very easy to go off the deep end when writing about them. You will always show favoritism towards the character, and that favoritism is dangerous to a story.

I prefer the characters from the show to be the protagonists. It is hard to take someone else's character and make them yours, but it is the sign of a skilled writer when they can take a character created by another person and truly make it their own without violating the spirit of the original creation, to show personality without violating character, to show motive without violating backstory, to show originality while also keeping what made you like that character in the first place. This is the ideal I strive for and the one I keep working towards.

That is not to say that I disagree with OC's. My story wouldn't work without my own villains and my own helpers, because OC's are well suited for roles as supporting characters or antagonists, and because of that certain settings are better suited to OC's than others. Such as action settings like Toaru Kagaku no Railgun, which includes the bonus of having a system where lots of people have powers, not just a few.


	21. Toaru Dan no Settei

Toaru Dan no Settei

A Certain Setting of the Stage.

* * *

Kuroko woke up early the next morning and looked over to the clock. It flashed 3:56 AM. 'Even earlier than usual', she noted. This time she had been roused by her nightmares rather than her Onee-sama's unconscious electrical discharges. She found herself in the same position she remembered falling asleep in, sitting on her Onee-sama's lap, snuggled close to her. Sometime in the night Misaka had wrapped her arms around her as well, her chin rested on the top of Kuroko's head.

Kuroko was pleased as ever to be so close to her one true love, but this morning it posed a problem. Almost every morning for the past while she had woken up early, and had used that time to practice. She would go to her training area to practice martial arts, or sit at her desk studying for ways to better utilize her power, or simply sit there and teleport needles to improve her accuracy and teleportation rate. Recently she had also been working on teleporting things while distracted, teleporting a needle near one of her nerve bundles to stimulate it and cause her varying amounts of pain which she would attempt to ignore (so far that had not worked out so well). Given how busy her days had been lately, early morning was pretty much the only time she could do such things.

But this morning, given the position she was in, she found that she would be unable to do any of that. Normally she could simply teleport out of whatever grip her Onee-sama held her in that night, though reluctantly, and be free to do what she wanted. However, due to the nature of the grip she was in now, teleporting out would likely wake up her Onee-sama, which could cause some problems. Her Onee-sama already knew that her nightmares were getting worse and was worried about it; Kuroko did not want to worry her further with definitive proof.

So Kuroko decided to simply wait until she woke up, meditating until the alarm clock blared a couple hours later. After that she gave Misaka her customary good-morning kiss, making it last for far longer than usual to make up for the times she had missed it. Misaka's response, though slow in coming, was predictably firm, pushing Kuroko away (with a "little" added shock as extra incentive) and, whether by accident or on purpose, onto the floor.

But she was as quick to recover as usual and soon stood up again to begin changing and getting ready, glad to be able to move again, and invigorated by the kiss.

* * *

After that the morning was as normal as ever. The hype and activity at school seemed to have settled down a while ago so things were peaceful once again, though there was still a feeling in the air that Kuroko didn't like. Her intuition told her something was going to go wrong, and her intuition had rarely been wrong before.

Still, despite the tingly feeling in her gut, the day was normal until lunch time, when she received a text message. The incoming number was blank, though within the first line she had figured out who it was from. It said: "Pawn B to B3. Oh, also, I found a place where you might be able to find that thing you're looking for. I'll be available today at the same time and place as last time." It was worded in a way that did not betray any information to anyone else.

The rest of the school day passed without incident and she met up with her Onee-sama as usual right after the last bell rang. "So what's on the agenda for today? Neither I nor Uiharu have Judgment work. Surprising considering what's going on but you know what they say about gift horses and their mouths."

"I'll text Uiharu and Saten and see if they want to hang out," Misaka said before doing just that. Soon enough they sent their reply, "They say that that would be fine. They say they need to buy a few things so they suggested we meet them at the park and go shopping together," Misaka said, reading off the contents of their response.

"That works," Kuroko said smiling as the two made their way to the park where the group would always meet and hang out. The park with the vending machine her Onee-sama seemed to find a strange delight in kicking. However when they arrived there, neither Saten nor Uiharu were anywhere in sight.

So Misaka and Kuroko found themselves waiting on a nearby bench for their friends to arrive. The bench was in the cool shade with a nice gentle breeze. The day was nice and bright and the birds were chirping in the trees. Kuroko smiled,' it truly is a beautiful day, so nice and relaxing'. She found her eyelids growing heavy. But she shook that feeling off. It was true that over the past several days she hadn't been getting as much sleep as was perhaps necessary for a girl her age, but she wasn't feeling any the worse for wear. She could…

Misaka sat on the bench in silence, just enjoying the fresh air and beautiful summer day. Then she felt something fall into her lap. She looked down to find Kuroko's head nestled on top of her thighs, her shoulders rising and falling steadily in a peaceful, unconscious rhythm. Misaka looked down at the sleeping girl noting her calm face with a smile. Kuroko's sleep had been more and more restless as of late. Misaka herself had also been having a hard time getting to sleep and she had seen Kuroko writhing and shivering as she was plagued by the nightmares she had been having consistently since that first day they had come back. Now, though, a simply touch would not suffice, even a tight embrace did little to stave off her mind's monsters.

'But she seems to be slumbering peacefully at the moment,' Misaka noted as she ran her hand through Kuroko's hair, slightly out of affection and slightly out of concern. "Maybe it's because it's such a nice day out," she theorized with a smile, "so nice and relaxing." She stifled a yawn, "maybe I could just rest my eyes for a second," she said as she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

"See Uiharu, I told you," Saten said waving a couple recently acquired banks cards in the air, "my nose never fails me when it comes to money."

"You really shouldn't have taken them. You should try to find their proper owners like a responsible person," Uiharu reprimanded, "besides, now we're late. Misaka-san and Shirai-San have probably been waiting for us."

"I'm sure they don't mind," she replied, looking around for them. Soon her eyes fell upon the bench under the tree and a grin spread across her face. She turned to Uiharu and made a shhh sign, and then she pointed at the two. "See," she whispered, "they seem to be fine."

It was such an adorable scene, almost like it was ripped out of one of Saten's shoujo ai mangas, with Kuroko resting on Misaka's lap and Misaka's hand placed comfortingly on Kuroko's head, slumbering peacefully with her. She was a big fan of the genre even though people might see her interest as odd considering she was a girl; but, when pulled off well, where the relationship was well written and not simply fanservice, it was as or more enjoyable than any other story, and she found those people who found it odd to be the odd ones. In her opinion love was love. "They look so peaceful and innocent don't they?"

Then she heard a still unconscious Kuroko mutter in her sleep, "No Onee-sama… that's my Judgment pair… put on the fur-lined ones…"

"Well… peaceful at least," Saten amended while Uiharu blushed.

Though Uiharu didn't share her friend's interest in shoujo ai or yuri she did have to admit it was a cute scene, though she knew that she shouldn't think of her friends like that. "We should wake them up," she whispered back.

"In a second," Saten said pulling out her phone and snapping a quick picture of the scene.

"Saten-san," Uiharu gasped reproachfully.

"It's just a picture…" Saten justified, "it's their fault for falling asleep in such a public place." She took a couple more photos and then put her phone away. "Now we can wake them up… why don't you do the honors."

"You're the one who's so interested, why don't you do it," Uiharu said. Kuroko wasn't exactly a morning person to the best of her knowledge. She had too much experience with Kuroko's ire to risk provoking it.

"Fine," Saten said, sticking her tongue out at Uiharu. Still her caution was understandable. It was like trying to wake up wild tigers, if a tiger could zap you with a couple million volts by accident. So she was very careful, tiptoeing her way to the side of the bench and gently nudging Misaka's shoulder, "hey sleepyhead," she said quietly, "wake up."

Misaka shifted a little in her sleep, "No Kuroko…. No good morning kisses…" she whined.

"Pffthahahaha," Saten burst out into laughter, falling onto the ground holding her side.

At the loud laughter, Kuroko opened an eye. She noticed that it was too bright to be morning. So she sat up with a stretch and a yawn and blinked to get the sleep from her eyes. The process was mimicked a few seconds later by Misaka. "Oh, hey guys," Kuroko said, finally noticing that their friends had arrived. She also noticed Saten on the ground laughing like a madwoman. "are you okay down there?" she asked her.

"Yeah I'm fine," Saten said recovering and standing up, a big smile still on her face, "you two ready to go?

"Uh, yeah let's go," Misaka replied, slightly concerned for the sanity of her friend.

After that they went to the mall. Their first stop was a sporting goods shop where Saten looked for a new bat. Then came the computer shop where Saten bought Uiharu's silence on the matter of the bank cards with a new 20 gigabyte video card for her computer. It was a compelling argument, the shiny new piece of hardware tempting her so until finally she gave in and pushed the memories aside and reveled in her excitement.

They went to a few more shops after that until Kuroko noticed the time and decided that she would need to be heading off if she wanted to get to Riko's office in time for her appointment. "I need to get going you guys, see you tomorrow at work Uiharu. Oh Onee-sama, I might be a little late so don't wait up for me."

"Where are you going?" Uiharu asked. They hadn't been hanging out much lately so she was disappointed to hear that this venture had to be cut short. Not only that but she was a bit curious as to what Kuroko had to do, though she had an inkling.

"Just… stuff," Kuroko deferred, acting purposely suspicious. She knew the answer Uiharu wanted.

Uiharu sighed, "Don't work so hard on this case ok? It's not good for you."

"The opportunity won't be here for much longer. Dedication is what this case needs," she responded defensively.

"Come on Kuroko, you only have one childhood," Saten said as she put her arm around Kuroko's shoulders, not noticing the tensing muscles or the twitch of the eye that accompanied the last word, "hang with your friends and live a little."

"Actually I should get going too," Misaka piped up, "schoolwork."

Saten pouted and walked over to Uiharu draping herself dramatically over the girl's shoulders. "It seems the Ojou-sama's are abandoning us peasants, Uiharu. You're all I have left, you and your pink bunny panties," she bemoaned.

Misaka rolled her eyes at the melodrama, "I've just been swamped recently. I promise that, next time I'm free, we can hang out for an entire day, right Kuroko." Unfortunately she was talking to thin air, the teleporter having separated herself from the awkward situation at its onset, forcing Misaka, once again, to admit that it was a far more useful power to have in everyday life.

"That works," Saten said, cheering up quickly, "have fun!"

* * *

Now that she had acquired Saten's blessing Misaka left. She headed to the second of the addresses Hayami had given her yesterday. This time she would be more careful, not entirely sure if yesterday's conflict had been a result of intentional misdirection or an airhead's accident.

She soon arrived at a warehouse similar to the others, though she noticed that the concrete walls seemed considerably thicker than the other ones, and she could feel the steel rebar within that meant it was reinforced, giving it the impression of being more like a military bunker than a warehouse. She noticed that the lights were on inside but couldn't feel the presence of any bioelectricity inside that would suggest that there were people.

She decided that it would be best if she took a look regardless, and cautiously opened the door and slipped into the building. This one was set up very different from the other one, all the boxes and crates were all pushed up in one area near the wall. The middle of the warehouse and the far wall were clear.

And looking at the far wall she understood why the concrete had needed to be so thick. The entire floor and walls were scorched, the wall held innumerable cracks and in several places seemed to be falling apart. Even thickened and reinforced the walls had sustained incredible damage, like somehad had taken a wrecking ball to it, or set off a bomb nearby.

As she was inspecting the area she heard the garage-type door set in the nearby wall open. She quickly hid among the crates, waiting and listening. The voices she heard were male, so they weren't students. There wasn't anywhere near enough electricity to suggest that a robot was nearby, so it probably wasn't a pilot either.

"Wow this place looks like shit," One of them said.

"Yeah, it's that girl I was telling you about, she really does a number on this place," The other replied, "She isn't here today though."

"How does a teenage girl cause this much destruction?"

"ESPers. Weapons wrapped in human flesh."

"You were saying that this one's a friend of the CEO's daughter right?"

"Nah, from what I hear they're just in the same club. CEO's daughter leads it, give the girl this place to train and we gotta suffer through only having half a warehouse," He complained as he began loading up the crates on the truck, "least we ain't gotta clean up their mess, I feel sorry for the people who repair the wall every week."

"Why do they make so much effort for one girl."

"you've never seen it have you? You haven't seen the explosions that the girl can produce. I've only seen little ones and they are powerful enough to knock hunks of solid concrete off the wall. She told me once she could blow up a few city blocks or more if she wanted to. Even if that's exaggeration I don't care to test it out. They make so much effort 'cause she's an invaluable subject to study for a weapon's manufacturer."

"What about the other one you were talking about?"

"The little one? I don't know her deal, hardly ever see her. I think she's the one that erects the barrier thing that protects them and the stock from being destroyed. She's no big deal compared to the other one though, the tall one."

"Hmmm… might be interesting to see one of those explosions one day."

"You should. Those ESPers put me on edge but the thing's amazing. Like a fireworks festival in a bubble. They don't mind spectators either, long as you don't talk to 'em much. She's as explosive as her power. A couple of the interns hit on her and she damn near blew them up along with the rest of the building. She's cute but not worth dying for."

"I prefer my women legal age thank you very much."

The other one laughed, "Anyway if you're interested in seeing the show I think they'll be here tomorrow around this time. There aren't any deliveries though so you'll have to come on your own time."

"Nah, I'll wait till the timing overlaps," he replied as he loaded up the last of the crates on the truck and then drove off, closing the garage door behind him and turning off the lights. Once Misaka was sure they had left she decided to go herself. She had found out plenty enough of information to justify the trip.

Number one, she had found out that they would be here tomorrow. Number two she found out that there were two of them. And number three, she had found out their power. The last one worried her slightly. It sounded like it was similar to the graviton bomber's power, though even more powerful. She would need to take them out quickly. Satisfied with that plan she headed on home.

* * *

Once again Kuroko stood before the large oak door with the prismatic plaque bearing the words Simurgh Associations as well as the silly and slightly insulting motto. She reached for the handle, to enter when she heard voices from inside.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME?!" A deep male voice yelled.

"I told you that I am unable to give you that piece of information and then followed it with a list of reasons why your presence is an offense to my various senses," Riko replied in a condescending tone.

"OH YEAH! How's this for an offense," he said, "now you better answer my question or I'll blow your brains out."

"there is no need for you to bring out that weapon. Despite your Neanderthal like intelligence and manners we can be civil about this. You're not a murderer."

"Not yet, but I guess things change," He said with a grin. But just as he was about to pull the trigger the gun slipped from his hand and his legs gave out beneath him, totally paralyzed.

Kuroko stood over the man who was now lying face down on the ground and cuffed him. She extracted the needle from the paralysis point where she had teleported it a few moments ago and then teleported him down to the ground, outside in the back of the building. She would deal with him when she was done here.

Riko smiled, "thank you Shirai-san, your punctuality saved my life it seems." Rather than shock or surprise she heard something that sounded akin to pride in his voice, almost like he had planned this. But she rolled her eyes at that notion, reprimanding herself for believing in his mysticism schtick for even a moment. Riko walked over to the chessboard and sat down.

"You don't exactly have the best customer service do you?" Kuroko accused. Though the big guy shouldn't have started waving a gun around, Riko had provoked him.

"You're right… I should show my appreciation more, how about I tell you what I found out for no charge?"

"No charge?" Kuroko asked suspiciously. Riko wasn't exactly the most trustworthy person so she was expecting some sort of caveat connected to this unexpected offer.

"yep. As I said, money is a side effect, and it didn't take much to find out anyway. After all I was the person who led him to the capacity down in the first place."

"I thought you said you didn't know where any of them were," she recalled as she sat down at the opposite end of the board and made her move.

"I didn't. I was almost certain that he had it but I still had to track him down. I didn't tell you because the information was incomplete and incomplete information is dangerous to the customers," He said, then a short pause followed, "you know you two are actually quite similar. He's law enforcement as well, or used to be. Nowadays he is what you might call a bounty hunter though."

"He started off as the only son of a wealthy banker, one of the many original investors of Academy City. He would have been set for life without having to do any work but he decided that he wanted to help people, do good for the world. So he decided to become a member of Anti-Skill. He had a nice life for a while, a beautiful wife and daughter. That is until they were killed in a bank robbery. He was devastated and investigated the robbery for days. He discovered that the weapons the robbers had had had been the same as those that were issued to Anti-Skill agents. Imagine his horror when he discovered that his own partner had been selling weapons from the Anti-Skill armory to criminals to earn a bit of money on the side."

"He confronted his partner and gave him a chance to turn himself in, but of course he failed to convince him to do so, and in the end was forced to shoot him in self-defense. After that he quit the force, deciding that things like Anti-Skill were too open to corruption. He sought to do justice on his own as a professional bounty hunter and quickly became one of the best."

Kuroko looked at him from across the chess board, "Why did I need to know that?"

"You didn't," Riko admitted, "but it does make things more interesting no? After all it is so easy to commit atrocities against a man but raising your hand against a story, now that is harder. Will you be able to hunt him down and take what is his knowing why he does what he does?"

"Justice is blind," Kuroko said ruthlessly, though that was not how she felt. Inside doubt gnawed at her, just like Riko intended, which is why she wasn't letting him see it.

"Yes... that is the part of the story that always confuses me so. A young man has enough money that he would never need to worry about it running out, and yet he chooses to devote his life to such a silly notion as justice."

She bristled at this statement, and demanded through clenched teeth, "how is justice a silly notion?"

"Because of what you just said. Justice is blind. It is ruthless, with no mercy and no understanding of the situation behind the behavior it seeks to punish. Because it is blind retribution almost always comes down either too hard or too soft upon the punished. It ignores the story, seeing only the criminal simply so that it will be more convenient to prosecute."

At these words an image flashed into Kuroko's mind. A memory from long ago. Her building rage was extinguished in a moment as she spoke, "Maybe it seems like that to someone like you, who treats everything like a game, and maybe you even have a point. Retribution without understanding, without knowledge, without humanity is, too often, the result of our attempts at justice. But it is not the ideal of justice that is flawed, but the execution of it. Those without devotion to that ideal are what blind justice and corrupt it's very image. But when pursued by those with dedication and belief, justice is anything but a 'silly concept.'"

Riko looked up at her for a second the looked back down to the board, "I suppose it is quite admirable, chasing after such a selfless ideal as justice. And it is truly selfless, after all, the truly just have no place in the world they create. Check."

Kuroko moved her piece then stood up, "where is he?"

Riko reached into his pocket and pulled out a small device, about the size of a hockey puck. "Section 167, I'll give you more precise directions over this. Oh and when you're done keep it, I'll contact you on that if I find out the location of the others."

Kuroko took the device and began leaving, but she paused at the door. "Tell me," she said, "you could have put me in checkmate seven moves ago. I know you saw the move, but you chose not to take it. You gave up your chance to win and ended up stalemating. Why?"

"You had it the wrong way round before... I don't treat the world like a game, I treat games like the world. When you lose in the real world something is sacrificed, but a lesson is learned. When you win you lose nothing but you never learn the lesson that failure had to teach. Sometimes it's best to reside in that place between winning and losing, that state where nothing really changes but things are learned," Riko responded with a stupid, mischievous grin on his face, "Besides, you have more wiggle room when you aim for a tie rather than victory."

Kuroko closed the door behind her and teleported away. She began to make her way to section 167 of District 7, weighed down by the burden of ideals and memories.

"Things were simpler when all it was was knights and dragons."

* * *

Author's Note: Sorry this chapter took so long, but I spent the first couple days writing another chapter, one that comes later (one that I'm sure you'll all enjoy). Anyway, this is kind of like the intro to my next group of chapters. Scenes happening in preparation for the big week ahead of the girls.

Also, upon receiving some friendly criticism I decided that I would try and give some more definition to Uiharu so she wouldn't be such a… background character. Problem being is that I'm not too good at working with goody-two shoes kind of characters unless they're like Hayami, which is to say airheads. So, to remedy that, I decided to do her character growth in my own way… by making her a hardcore gamer. It's a personality trait that I could totally see from her, especially considering how good she is on computers. She's a bit harsh online but still maintains the 1337 C0D3 0F H0N0R so she can't really be classified as a troll. She supports Nintendo over Sega but dislikes Mario, considering him to be a sellout (Not my actual opinion, just something I made up on the spot for Uiharu, before I get any people flaming me for that). Her favorite games are the Super Smash Bros. series and her favorite characters from that series are Samus, Zelda, and Bowser.

Yeah… I wrote this a bit late at night so I apologize for the slightly rambling humor.


	22. Toaru Hanta no Shuryu

Toaru Hantā no Shuryō

A Certain Hunting of the Hunter

* * *

"Why am I doing this?" Kuroko asked herself, "why am I going on this ridiculous hunt?" At first it had been a simple coincidence, running across the first of the six. And it wasn't really her choice to bring it home instead of handing it over to Anti-Skill. Kuro had decided that for her, and through that decision made it impossible for her to give it to them later, lest even more suspicion fall upon her.

Kuro had done it out of curiosity and perhaps a bit of sentimentality, though she couldn't be sure if it was possible for her to feel that. She had recognized the signature and wondered, correctly in the end, if it could be the same as that of their childhood friend.

The second had been an easy one, both to retrieve and to justify. Those who had held it had been vicious mercenaries who had likely been the ones that had ordered the attack on her and her friends. She couldn't let people like them have the power of the capacity down.

Though Kuro could not read her thoughts she "saw" the memories that Shiro was pulling up, "felt" the doubt coursing through her, and she guessed that she was having problems with this. She knew Shiro well enough to know what was troubling her. _You do this because you're too good a person to let this go by unchecked. You have experienced the abuse of this technology first-hand. You are simply protecting it from those who would abuse it._

"Right... I'm protecting it by putting it in my hands instead... because a nigh-psychotic schizophrenic with a superiority complex who becomes a literal psychopath when exposed to it is perfectly trustworthy," Kuroko spat bitterly.

_Despite your sarcasm you are correct. You are trustworthy, more so than most anyone else. Because you admit that you aren't. You have no illusions that you can control this power and use it for good. And because of that you won't be corrupted by it. You are one of the few people that can be trusted because you are more afraid of yourself than you are of anyone else. That is why you will gather all of them and then destroy them. It is something only you can do._

"I am hardly that special," she remarked, but she had to admit there was some truth to what Kuro had said. And either way, she could hardly sit back and wait for someone better suited to the task to handle it. This was something she had to do... for the greater good. Either way it didn't matter now. She was at section 167 now.

She took the thing she had received from Riko out of her bag. She looked it over for how to operate it. It was weird, she had not seen something like it before. From what she could see the front of it was a speaker. Looking on the side of it she could make out two sets of grooves that would suggest that something inside. She found a button in between the two set in a groove of its own like a switch. She pressed the button and two extensions rose from the main body. One looked to be a microphone, the other seemed to be a USB plug, the purpose of which Kuroko didn't quite know. But it didn't matter at the moment. She flipped the switch up and down, but noticed no change in the device as a result. Pressing the button didn't make the extensions retract again either, so nothing she was doing seemed to be having any effect.

"Damnit," She swore, "why didn't he tell me how to work this damn thing when he gave it to me?"

A voice issued from the speaker, "well you left in quite a huff... I didn't have the opportunity. But you seemed to figure it out on your own. The switch turns the microphone on and off," Riko lied.

In truth it had been on since she had left the office and couldn't be turned off manually, only remotely from Riko's desk. The switch was a simple illusion of control, a way to lower the guard of the other person so that they might reveal some sensitive information. But the information he had come across during this particular eavesdropping was not exactly what he was expecting. He had been hoping to discover her reason for wanting the "Horns of Jericho" as they were called. He had been expecting her to be working for someone, someone skilled enough to evade even his detection.

The truth of the matter, if what he had heard was the truth, was surprising, to say the least, but it could be useful later on.

"He's going to a job, so he'll be in the back alleys to avoid detection. You should be able to see him from the top of that building 373.24 meters away at 12.41 degrees," He directed her. The Gaokerena he gave her also had a built in tracker making it quite an easy matter to point her towards her destination.

Kuroko rolled her eyes at his pointlessly exact coordinates but made her way to that point anyway, being used to far more complex geometry than that. From this spot on top of the building she could indeed see a tall black-haired man walking down the wide alley between buildings. He wore a trench coat and, slightly oddly considering that the light of day was waning, large, somewhat gaudy, mirrored sunglasses. He carried a suitcase that looked exactly like the other two.

"Is that him?" Kuroko whispered into the microphone.

"Indeed that is Jango, your target," Riko responded, "Now I've done my part, have fun with the rest." He turned off the microphone and got on with his other work, a deal with one miss Yashinko Honogun for the location of a certain teleporter from Tokiwadai Middle School.

* * *

Meanwhile the man had stopped walking. He rotated his head from side to side to work out a crick in his neck then reached into his trench coat. Kuroko watched closely, unsure if she should attempt to talk with him first or simply snatch it away stealthily. But she soon discovered that the choice wasn't necessarily hers to make when a small chunk of the building's roof near her foot was shot off followed by a fairly loud 'ptt' noise. On reflex she teleported down to the ground behind the man, but he wheeled around quickly. Now the gun was pointed directly at her. From her limited knowledge of weaponry she guessed that it was a 9mm with a silencer on the end of it.

The man looked over the rim of his sunglasses for a moment. "Oh, it's just a kid..." He remarked dismissively, severely irritating Kuroko. Still, though he now knew was facing nothing more than a twelve year old, he did not lower his guard at all, nor did he lower his weapon. Years of training taught him to never underestimate an opponent. "Why don't you go and pretend that this never happened, understood?"

Kuroko shook her head and said, "I'm afraid I can't do that. I need that capacity down, and I'd prefer if you just hand it over."

"I'm afraid I can't do that little girl. This is a powerful weapon, one I intend to use for justice, one only I am capable of wielding. I'm not going to hand it over to you just because you asked," he said as he tossed something onto the ground and suddenly he was enveloped in a cloud of smoke, "I'll give you one more chance to run or else," he trailed off as he fired a warning shot that just barely missed Kuroko's cheek.

Kurok dropped low to the ground and quickly, but quietly, ran forward, circumventing the smoke to get to his rear. She couldn't see him through the smoke, so couldn't use her needles to paralyze or pin him. But neither could he see h- Another shot missed Kuroko by inches. However this time the miss wasn't intentional, he was really trying to kill her.

Kuroko kept low and on the move, constantly shifting her speed so he couldn't lead his shot.

4.

The smoke cloud didn't seem to be hindering him at all it seemed. Logically it should obscure his vision as much as it did hers, yet all his shots were just barely missing.

5.

She looked at her own options. The smoke was big, too big to guess where he was within it. But it was also quite small, the smoke seemed to disperse-

6.

-quickly ,vanishing entirely before it got above the roofs of the buildings, this also meant that it didn't uncontrollably stretch too far outwards.

7.

Teleporting herself away wouldn't solve anything, and would simply give him a chance to escape while he was out of her range of vision.

8.

There was no cover other than the smoke to hide in or behind, nor anything thick and big enough to protect her from the bullets.

9.

She was getting too far away from Jango but knew she shouldn't risk slowing down to turn around. So instead she switched her orientation from one direction to the other and began running back.

10.

That one was way off target due to her sudden teleportation. Grinning, she got an idea. She began teleporting sporadically. A few feet behind her, a foot to the left, two feet to the right and so on.

11.

Perfect, another shot gone wide. The smokescreen was beginning to fade as well. Now there was only one more thing...

12.

That was it, the last bullet. Now she could see him as well, or at least his neck. She stopped in her tracks then teleported behind him, moving her hand to the nail bands on her thighs for ammunition.

Then Kuroko's hand stopped in its tracks. She heard a crack echo throughout the alley, ringing in her ears like a clap of thunder. She felt a stream of thick liquid run down her lower stomach and back. She saw smoke issuing from a hole.

It took her around a half a second to piece together what had just happened. The second she felt the strength sapping from her legs as white hot pain shot through her. She found herself stumbling backwards then falling as her legs gave out altogether. She landed on her rear propped against the wall, eyes wide in an odd sort of disbelief as she watched her pristine beige vest was slowly tinged red.

Jango walked over. "Don't worry," he said, "that wound is completely non-fatal. You could lay here all night and not bleed to death, the chance of infection is very low as well. It hurts enough to keep your powers in check though, so listen up," he crouched down , "I don't know why you want this thing, and I don't particularly care. But you shouldn't get wrapped up in these grown up matters. And don't worry, I won't hurt you any more if you don't come after me. I'm not evil, in fact I had a little girl myself." he peered over the rim of his glasses to look the girl in her eyes. They were as cold as death and as blank as the void. Then he felt a small hand close tight around his throat.

Kuro lunged forward, pushing Jango onto the ground. She pinned one of his hand with her free one and his other with a foot as the other foot was placed firmly on his hip, keeping his legs in place. Now, completely in her mercy, she tightened her grip around his throat feeling as the muscles spasmed in their frantic bid for oxygen. He began struggling to free himself but the pin that Kuro held him in was strong, even a small girl like her could keep him down.

"_You have a little girl and yet you would shoot another with so little provocation? You so readily eliminate those who disagree with your sense of justice and yet you call yourself incorruptible? You think yourself righteous but you are nothing but a corruption to the ideals you used to hold so close. You aren't worthy of the breath you draw,"_ Kuro said these words of fire in her voice of ice as she began hitting his head against the hard ground of the pavement until he slipped from consciousness.

He was still alive, the damage probably wasn't even that major, but he would be unconscious for a while. She stood up and looked down at herself. The bullet wound, though painful, did indeed seem to be fairly minor. Which was good because she had no first aid kit and no wish to go to a hospital. She would wait until she got home, but that still left the matter of the bloodstain. It was quite visible against her brown shirt. If she didn't want to attract attention then it would be better if she covered it up. She glanced at Jango and decided that the trench coat, though too big and not exactly inconspicuous, would at least hide the blood. So she took it off of him and draped it around herself. She noticed that under the coat Jango was wearing what looked to be body armor, though a type she hadn't seen before. It wasn't the standard Anti-Skill issue.

She also picked up his sunglasses. They were too big for her but she was slightly suspicious and so she looked through them to see if she was right. It turns out she was. The glasses seemed to be some sort of infrared detector. That was how he had seen her through the smoke, and why he had looked over them whenever he needed to see her. She dropped them back onto the ground. They were too big and thus useless to her, even if they were quite interesting. Then she picked up the suitcase. It seemed heavier than the other two had been and the inside of the handle had a button which Kuro accidentaly pressed as she picked it up. When pressed it activated the Capacity Down and when pressed again it deactivated it.

It seems that on this one you don't have to do it manually. Shiro pointed out.

"_It seems not. I'm guessing it was a personal modification by him, it seems like it would be easy enough to set up, and quite convenient in the context of a fight." _

… Are you okay?

"_I'm fine."_

You're not fine.

"_I will be until we get home, then I'll treat the wound and clean the stain."_

Is the pain bothering you at all?

"_I feel it but it is not bothering me in the slightest. The whip was worse. I'll just take some of the pain medication when we get back, there's still some left."_ Kuro said as she left the alley and began walking home. It would be a long walk. she attempted to stick to the alleys and backstreets as much as possible, not caring to attract undue attention and hopefully avoid any conflict.

* * *

Having arrived at the spot designated by Honogun-sama, Kai sat down and waited, along with her three "colleagues", 'because apparently it takes 4 people just to capture one single person,' she grumbled internally. It was ridiculous that she had to be sent with so many people, they would do nothing but slow her down and steal her glory. She could handle this on her own.

But of course Kai couldn't exactly go against Honogun-sama's orders. That was not the road to a long and happy life, as evidenced by the less than warm dismissal that the last two members to fail her had gotten. She especially felt sorry for Hayami. Such a sweet little girl who made a single mistake and Honogun-sama had almost killed her. But Hayami didn't seem to care about that anymore. She popped those anti-anxiety pills of hers like candy and they made her about as mellow and forgiving as a girl could be. The other one had kind of deserved it, she was a royal bitch at the best of times.

'Of course I'm not exactly being a saint here either.' Honogun-sama's orders had been to "persuade" a student called Shirai Kuroko to come to a designated location. It had been quite vague but the underlying meanings were clear. Shirai Kuroko was the girl who was always hanging around Misaka, who STORM was simultaneously fighting and attempting to get to join. Considering it had been Kai, who's power would allow her to disorient people(making someone like a teleporter completely unable to use their abilities), who had been sent and considering Honogun-sama's choice of words, it was fairly obvious she was being sent to capture, or kidnap rather, this Kuroko girl. With someone so close to Misaka in STORM's grasp they had a number of options available. It was a deplorable tactic, but orders were orders.

The others of the group were not so casual as Kai though. There were two first years and one second year. She knew why they were on edge, or rather she knew the rumors that had been putting them off. Kuroko was quite… infamous at their school for a variety of reasons.

The first were the rumors about her closeness to Misaka. This is what was annoying the second year, who was among the several girls who were infatuated with the level 5. During the first year of school Misaka had been quite "popular". Tokiwadai, after all, was a high class school where most relationships were those of convenience. It was probably the knowledge of this that caused Misaka to be so distant. She would be as courteous as could be but never allowed people to be close to her. So, despite being surrounded by people, she had no friends.

Ever since this pattern was broken by that teleporter, rumors had been popping up and spreading as to what exactly was going on. One rumor said that Kuroko had blackmailed Misaka into a relationship. This was popular amongst those like her second year colleague who didn't want to believe that another person had so easily succeeded doing something that they couldn't. Among others, especially those who didn't like Misaka or were jealous of her ability, the most popular rumor was that they were more than just friends. Of course this theory enflamed Misaka's admirers even more, though they denied any possibility of it being true. Those 2 rumors were the source of a great deal of hate for the teleporter.

Among the first years, however, there were rumors of a different kind. Kai was aware of the fear that many of the first years and even the second and third years had of Kuroko. Whereas last year Misaka's lunch table was full of adoring fans, now it was empty, save for her and that teleporter and a few more that Kuroko approved of. There was an aura of menace around her, a lingering threat that hung in the air and warded off most people. Similar to what Honogun-sama had. Though, from what she had heard, Kuroko's could affect even her, sending the great Honogun-sama scurrying off with her tail between her legs with just her presence and a few words. If it was true it was quite amusing and Kai was sorry to not have seen it.

Though that was a bad move on Kuroko's part, it seemed. Kai knew that half the reason for this mission was some sort of revenge. That was why she had selected the other three members of the group. Not for their abilities, which would be next to useless against a non-disabled teleporter, but because each of them hated Kuroko. It was also why their mission orders had simply told them to bring her to the location alive and in one piece, saying that she didn't care what condition she was in when she got there. Kai didn't care much though, it was simply a job that she needed to do, let the others have their fun, she wouldn't stop them, but she wouldn't participate.

Kai began hearing footsteps echoing down the alley. It seemed that it was time to begin.

* * *

Kuro walked down the alleyways, trying hard to avoid people and conflict. So far she had been successful in doing so, but as she turned down this alley she was confronted by the sight of 4 girls, all in Tokiwadai uniforms.

Instantly her mind began trying to form an explanation. This region wasn't exactly a place that such high class girls would be likely to visit, even less so considering they were in a random, dank alley. Which means that they were there for another reason. Since it was unlikely that she had just stumbled upon them by accident, which meant that she was probably the reason they were here. Among school she had many enemies, but they had never actually attacked her. Something was going on to have emboldened these girls.

One of them stepped forward, the tallest, oldest looking one. "Hello. You're Shirai Kuroko correct? Well we're members of STORM and we would appreciate it if you came with us. Peacefully if possible, we wouldn't want you getting hur-"

Kuro knew from Shiro's experience as a teleporter that nothing was more important than being the first to draw and fire. Shiro had only survived so long because she didn't give her opponents a chance to attack her, and Kuro wouldn't either. So before she even finished her sentence she pressed the button on the handle of the suitcase, activating the Capacity Down, incapacitating all of the girls and making them fall to their knees.

Kuro walked up to the tall one, who she guessed was the leader and pushed her with her foot down onto her back. Then she stood over her, her foot putting just enough pressure on her neck to make a point. _"I don't care who you are or what reason you have to try and abduct me. But let me make this abundantly clear, you do __**not**__ threaten me, ever. Is that understood?"_ she asked, her voice holding no anger or hate or hostility even as she was grinding her foot into the girl's neck. She couldn't talk, but the look of sheer terror in her eyes was answer enough. So she stepped off of her and continued walking down the alley, the loud buzz of the capacity down ringing in the air until she turned it off a fair distance away.

You terrify me.

"_You terrify yourself more than I ever could. Besides, you know the power of fear. Those girls, and likely no other STORM member will ever mess with you again."_

You still went too far, it was complete overkill and it could end up coming back to haunt me. Remember that I have to clean up the messes you make.

"_I know, and I apologize, I am simply trying to protect you, as I have always tried to do."_

I know you are… but you're doing it in a very brutal manner, one that could cause a lot of trouble if you overdo it,Then there was a pause and Shiro changed the topic, They said they were STORM. That's the faction from school correct? I wonder why they wanted me.

"_It's quite obvious isn't it? It's because you have information that could be used to ruin Yashinko's reputation and quite possibly get her and her father into a lot of trouble. Not only that but you flaunted the fact that you had that information in front of her face, embarrassing her and showing her that you are perfectly willing to bring that information to light. The fact that they hadn't gone after you before now and the fact that it was such minor opposition simply shows how lucky you are, or rather how prideful Yashinko is, that she would avoid using her family's mafia resources."_

If that's true then what happens now? If what you said is true, that STORM won't attack me, that means that the only person who she has left to call upon will be those mafia resources. Or maybe I'm being too arrogant… I'm far too high risk for them to bother attacking. Not only am I a high-class student, but I am a member of Judgment as well.

_"You are probably right but there is still a risk. But Yashinko is not one to forgive a slight, and she will defend her pride to the death. So depending how much Yashinko can influence her father, you may be at more risk than you think."_ When she finished speaking she heard a noise. Listening carefully she sighed when she realized what it was, _"another distraction it seems,"_ she said to herself as a few raindrops fell on her head.

* * *

After dealing with the distraction and making it all the way back to her dorm without another, she put what she had retrieved in a safe place and headed to the front door. She had discarded the trenchcoat a while ago (after looting it's pockets, much to Shiro's chagrin). The rain, which was had been pouring down fairly hard, had mostly washed away the bloodstain. The red was still visible but it was much lighter now, easily able to be mistaken for something else, and the hole in the fabric was so small as to be nearly unnoticeable, especially amidst the red spot. Now all she had to do was open the door, walk in, and head back to her room.

That was the plan anyway, but very few things today had gone according to plan. In the main hall, seemingly waiting for her, was the Dorm Mistress. Her face was drawn in a big frown, her eyes, narrowed into an intimidating glare, roared with that mix of anger and disappointment that seemed to be her default. She slowly walked over to Kuroko, a lion approaching its cornered prey. And as she walked she spoke in a slow harsh voice full of malice and threat, "I have suspected that you had been out late recently, now it seems I have proof. You know this dorm's rules, you know its curfew time, there is no excuse for this behavior." She spoke as judge, jury, and executioner in Kuroko's mock trial, sentencing her without remorse, compassion, or understanding. and now that Kuroko had been sentenced, she would deliver her punishment. She reached for Kuroko's head and twisted the neck with strength that the casual observer would never think of her possessing.

But Kuro was not intimidated by any of this. Much like with herself, the dorm mistress's weapons were fear, brutality, and mercilessness. Kuro would not be swayed, she knew that there was no threat here. As she walked up to her she remained perfectly still, no tremble or quiver in her stance. And as she attempted to snap her neck she pivoted on her feet, going with the motion rather than resisting it. She twisted 360 degrees, and broke out of her hold, now standing beside her. She walked forward towards the staircase calling back, _"Give me a demerit if you wish but I have no time for a lecture and no patience for such a pointless show of force."_ She made her way back to the room, uninterrupted by the now enflamed dorm mistress as she dealt with the other late students who showed up shortly afterwards.

When she got back to her room she saw that the pereskia was still asleep, which was very good.

She made her way to the bathroom, stripping out of her uniform and examining the wound. Though small it was deep, having pierced through her entire body, which was actually pretty lucky, considering it meant that she had no shrapnel lodged in her. However it meant that she did have two different wounds to deal with. She took some pain medication and sleeping pills first and waited for it to kick in before treating the wound with antibacterial medicine, letting the liquid literally pour through her body from one bullet hole to the other to make sure she wouldn't suffer from an infection. Then she placed a pad of gauze on each side and wrapped a bandage around the wound. She also washed her uniform to get the bloodstain out fully, leaving it hanging up to dry for tomorrow morning.

Having finished with that she put got into her pajamas, checked that the pereskia was asleep, and then climbed into bed with her. The day had exhausted her and the sleeping medication was kicking in so she was soon fast asleep.

* * *

Author's note: Ahh... the simple elegance of sheer brutality. The biggest advantage Kuro has over Kuroko is her willingness to beat her opponents until they can't stand up anymore with a ruthlessness only a true psychopath is capable of. Of course she's still weaker than Kuroko (for now) due to having no powers, but she's far scarier, no?

On a side note, I discovered the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun character songs just the other day. They're brilliant, they really are. They fit so well with my fanfic it's weird. I mean one of them is called Desu no! Black and White. And Gira Gira Now is even closer. If you haven't heard it check out the lyrics and you'll see what I mean.


	23. Toaru Taifu no Me

Toaru Taifu no Me

A Certain Eye of the STORM

* * *

Misaka's eyes shot open as an odd, slightly painful, but not entirely unpleasant sensation raked its way across her back. She quickly got hold of her senses and tried to identify the source. She noticed immediately that Kuroko had returned sometime during the night after she had gone to bed… once again. She also noticed that she was still asleep; a fact that wasn't too surprising considering it was still an hour or so until their alarm even went off.

As always they had wrapped around each other in their sleep. Kuroko was holding onto Misaka tightly with arms and legs, acting as clingy as ever. But, oddly, she also seemed to be keeping her distance. Her chest and head were drawn as far back as possible while still maintaining the bear hug, like she was at once repulsed by and dependent on what she clung to. Misaka guessed from her movements that she was having another nightmare, the sensation running across her back, she could now figure out, was Kuroko's fingernails digging into her skin as her hands clenched and unclenched.

Normally such a thing wouldn't bother her but it just so happened that the hands were up her shirt and doing this in the exact spot that Kuroko would use to "calm her down". The spot that seemed to melt away all her anger and stress and left her feeling so...so weak. Not even she herself was in control of her anger, and yet with nothing but a simple touch Kuroko could be? She felt like a puppet, with someone else so easily pulling her strings. She had always been annoyed by Kuroko's pace, it was far too fast for her. But now that they were in a relationship it was even worse, because now she was being pulled along by it, whether she wanted to or not.

She couldn't let herself be pulled along. She didn't want someone else taking control of her. She needed to be stronger, she needed to fight fire with fire, she needed to stop being so afraid and embarrassed by a simple good morning kiss.

She looked over Kuroko's face. It was calm and peaceful despite her body's thrashing, almost like it was frozen in place with a blank look. But despite seeming as cold and still as a statue, her lips still looked as warm and soft as ever. Misaka's heartbeat quickened as she strengthened her resolve. She leaned in and their lips met for a brief moment before withdrawing just as quickly. Her face held a light blush but it was more from her boldness than the kiss itself. It was a step on the path of victory, a step forward, a step closer to being the one to set the pace, a baby step perhaps but a step nonetheless.

Kuroko stopped her struggling as her eyes slowly opened, awakened by the kiss like Sleeping Beauty. She looked at Misaka with eyes still dull with sleep, then she smiled, leaning forward and nuzzling her, "Onee-sama…" she cooed blearily, pressing herself against the soft warmth of her bedmate.

Misaka's blush deepened at this, but she remained composed. "Kuroko," she said, keeping her embarrassment from her voice as she tried to give it an edge of authority, "since you're awake, please let go of me so I can get ready."

"Puu…" Kuroko whined, disappointed. But she relented nonetheless, reluctantly disentangling herself from her Onee-sama. Despite her rough night and the throbbing pain in her stomach she was still fairly happy. She had had a nice dream where her Onee-sama had actually been the one to kiss her and had woken up to her favorite sight in the world. Or rather her third favorite; her favorite was the image she had conjured of her beloved Onee-sama at their wedding in her beautiful white wedding dress, and her second favorite was her Onee-sama shortly after their wedding out of that wedding dress. Sadly those two particular images were still dreams for now.

Once they were free from their entanglement they stood and stretched then went to get ready. It was very early but they were awake anyway and it would be pointless trying to get back to sleep. After they had both gotten ready, Kuroko made a quick breakfast. Ever the romantic, she insisted that the two of them take it outside to watch the sunrise together. Misaka agreed and the pair found themselves on the roof of the dorm with a lovely view of the city as they watched the sun began its ascent into the sky.

Kuroko enjoyed the scenery and her Onee-sama's presence, smiling despite her pain. Her smile widened when her Onee-sama actually put her hand on Kuroko's own. She was blushing of course, and looking away, but there was a look of determination on her face. It was so cute to see her so driven by something as minor as holding hands. It was progress, slow and overdue, but progress nonetheless.

They stayed like that for several more minutes as the sun cleared the horizon, talking about light inconsequential things. They continued chatting until it was time to go, then the teleported down to the ground and made their way to school.

School went the same as usual for Misaka until lunch rolled around. She met up with Kuroko and they went together, sitting down at their normal spot. Today however Kuroko looked deep in thought. Misaka decided to ask her what was going on, "what's up Kuroko? You haven't said a word all lunch."

"Just thinking…" she replied simply.

"About…" Misaka prompted.

Kuroko looked at her and tried to put her thoughts into words. "There's a story," she began, 'about a British king who once sat in his throne on the beach and tried to stop the tide from coming in. He failed, but… could he have succeeded? With enough power can we hold back the tides? If we used all the windmills in Academy City, could we push back the wind?"

Misaka took a long hard look at Kuroko, considering what she had said before answering her, "You can never underestimate a person's determination. The king did nothing but sit there and order the tide to abate, but perhaps if he had put in enough effort he could have pushed them back. As for the windmill thing… I'll have to try that sometime but I think there is actually some merit in it," Misaka smiled, partly joking but partly curious as to whether or not it could actually work. "Though it is an odd topic to be considering. What brought it on?"

"I kind of made the dorm mistress just a little bit mad at me… It seemed a fitting allegory for the chances of me making it through this still breathing."

"I think pushing the wind back would be easier," Misaka said completely seriously, her smile gone along with the happy mood, replaced with an air of fear and concern.

"I'm going to try and apologize after school. If I don't make it through this please make sure you put flowers on my grave every now and again…"

"You're not going to die," Misaka said, though her voice had a tremor of uncertainty, "you'll make it through this. Promise me you'll make it through this."

"Don't worry Onee-sama, I have a plan. I'm sure it will all turn out all right," Kuroko said with a smile as the bell rang, "I'll see you tonight ok?"

"Ok," Misaka said as she gathered up her stuff, "I'll be returning around 8 or 9 so don't worry about me. And don't do anything stupid."

* * *

"I give all of you so much," Yashinko began, each syllable bubbling with exasperation and barely suppressed rage, "a place to train, resources, support… I am exceedingly generous. And I don't ask for too much in return. So tell me you four, tell me why, when I give you one little task, you fail so utterly? I sent four of you to capture one single teleporter. It should have been easy. How in the world did you mess this up?" She demanded.

She was tired of this failure. She knew that declaring war on a level 5 would be no easy task, but this string of losses was beginning to get ridiculous. "Her" first attempt at "persuasion" had not only turned out to be an idiotic psychopath who had not only violated the contract "she" had gotten with his company, but had also began this entire unwanted, unnecessary conflict by being so trigger happy. He had been beaten by that damn teleporter, despite how expensive the service had been. Not only that but the entire mercenary company that he belonged to had been destroyed.

But of course her own people had hardly been luckier. The rookie she sent, Hayami, had completely mistaken the purpose to her assignment, seeing the whole thing as a training exercise or playtime rather than the information gathering mission it had meant to be. She had made sure to express her displeasure at her incompetence with a stern lecture and a curt dismissal. But Sozoku, who was actually competent, though far too bloodthirsty for her tastes, had also failed to do anything but get another armored suit that her father had been building destroyed.

Her father was the driving force behind this entire thing, encouraging her activities with STORM and providing as many of his company's and his "company's" resources as he could. So far he had been very proud of what she had accomplished. But now that these resources were being slowly lost to this "war", and the profit to be gained by studying and utilizing the powers of STORM's ESPers was falling behind these losses, his support would begin to be restricted, giving her even less freedom to do what she wanted to than she already had and limiting her ability to provide for STORM. She needed to make this worthwhile again.

"it's not our fault," Kai spoke up, the only one of the group not too terrified to talk, "It wasn't what we expected. She had this thing, it made this awful sound and we couldn't use our abilities. You didn't tell us anything about that, how do you expect us to fight against something like that?"

Yashinko turned to Kai and, without a word, slowly began walking up to her. Though Kai tried to stand strong and appear brave, she was still terrified, fearing for her life for the third time in less than 24 hours.

Yashinko stopped shortly before Kai and looked at the four girls that had been sent out yesterday. Then she raised her hand, Kai flinched but, rather than being struck, she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder. She cracked open her eye to see Yashinko standing there with a small, pleased grin on her face.

"You're right," Yashinko said, "I suppose it isn't truly your fault. I didn't have that knowledge either. So I apologize for putting you through this. If there is anything I can do for you just talk to me. Have a nice day; see you at the next club meeting." Her voice, which had been so full of anger before, was now completely calm, even pleased.

However the four girls chose not to question this change of mood. Instead they thanked their gods and hurried out of the room.

"You should have punished them," A voice from behind Yashinko called. Further in the room which functioned as their club's headquarters were two couches. One was taken up by her second in command, Rya, the one who was talking to her, "you are not harsh enough on them for their failures." It seemed that Rya had forgotten it had been she who had chosen the people for the assignment.

"On the contrary, harshness should be reserved for one's enemies. I am…. annoyed at their failure, but I am not so annoyed or enraged that I would lift a finger against one of them. You should treat your colleagues with compassion, sympathy, and respect if you wish to earn their loyalty. Fear is a powerful tool but should be reserved for manipulating one's enemies, not one's allies," Yashinko lectured, "you're father handles his business that way and he seems to be doing well."

"Don't go spouting your Machiavellian bullshit to me," Rya spat, "My father is a fool whose making a fraction of the profits he could be. So why don't you be quiet about that and tell me what this really about, why'd you go from pissed to happy and what exactly are you planning? And while we're at it, what exactly does that teleporter have on you that's making you so cautious?"

"You know the answer to the first two already. As for the third question, it's a personal matter," Yashinko stated as she sat down on the couch opposite Rya, next to her head of security Kazege.

Rya rolled her eyes then got up. "Yeah, whatever. I'm out of here," she said as she left.

Yashinko waited for a while then sighed. She felt something warm wrap around her.

"You're scared Ya-chan… and worried."

Yashinko smiled, "yeah Ka-chan, I am. Things aren't turning out how I wanted at all. I was so terrified when I first met with Mikoto that I completely messed things up and every step that I've taken to fix it has just backfired on me. Rya is so convinced that fear is the way to motivate people that she's trying to paint me as some sort of monster. There's a difference between cutthroat and psychotic. Maybe she's doing it on purpose though, trying to undermine my authority… she's so indecipherable that it's hard to tell her motivations for anything. I'd kick her out of STORM but her power is far too useful."

"It also makes her cynical," Kazege said, "knowing everybody's' intentions, motives, and plans would quickly corrupt your view of the world. Plus she can't even turn it off. I hear some telepaths who can't control their powers go insane. Even though she can't hear full thoughts it would still be maddening wouldn't it?"

"I can have sympathy for the devil but it doesn't make him any less cutthroat," Yashinko replied earning a giggle from Kazege, "I need to go write an email to my dad, then we'll go out for some dinner, ok Ka-chan?"

Kazege let her go and nodded. "You're quite lucky. Your dad lives in the city, you can see him every day," she said as Yashinko walked over to the computer in the corner.

"I know, it's great. But you have family here too you know. I'm your family right imouto-Ka-chan?"

"I'm six months older than you," she huffed indignantly.

"perhaps… but which of us is scared of thunder and sleeps with a stuffed animal?" Yashinko wryly asked, only to receive a pillow to the back of her head, "ack… don't worry I won't tell anyone about Biki and you know I think it's kind of cute. Perfect for my little sister."

Kazege sighed, "Siblings are nothing but trouble."

Yashinko understood. It was a common problem among their social class. People think that being born rich guarantees an easy life free from all worries and stress, but the truth was far from that. Being born to rich parents created several problems. In Yashinko's case she was the only child, the indisputable heir to the Honogun fortune and, by extension, the crime family. However this meant that she had no real freedom to do what she chose. From birth her father had raised her to be his heir and would not condone his expectations being broken. This whole deal with STORM was because her father wanted her to show her leadership skills. She didn't want to be part of some stupid club, and sure as hell didn't want to be in a stupid war with a level 5. But her father insisted, and she could not disobey his wishes, she needed to make him proud.

Rya was the third child, having one older brother and one older sister. The chance of her inheriting the family business was slim. She would more likely be stuck working under one of her siblings. The only chance she had to take over was via pure skill or underhanded tactics, and she didn't have the necessary skill.

Kazege was even worse off. Not only was she the fourth child, having three older brothers, but she was a child of the second wife. She could never inheiret the family business and her brothers and other relatives had nothing but disdain for her. As soon as she was out of school she would have to fend completely for herself, with no aid from her family at all. The only advantage she had from being rich was going to good, expensive schools, though that in and of itself was a considerable advantage.

"Yeah, that's probably true," Yashinko said with a smile, "but even if I do cause you trouble imouto-Ka-chan, I couldn't imagine life without you."

"I wasn't talking about you, you don't cause me trouble. I was talking about real siblings, siblings by blood," Kazege tried to clarify her statement, not wanting to insult her dearest friend, "you are like a sister to me but…but…"

Yashinko stopped in the middle of writing the email and stood up. She walked over to another room, then came back and sat next to Kazege again, "you get flustered so easily Ka-chan. Don't worry, I understand what you're trying to say. We don't have the same blood flowing through us so we're not true sisters. But we could be."

Kazege cocked her head, confused by that last part, "huh?"

"Give me your finger," Yashinko said as she brandished a clean scalpel she had retrieved from the first aid kit. Kazege immediately complied, completely trusting Yashinko and not afraid at all. "This is going to hurt a bit," Yashinko said soothingly as she smoothly, carefully cut her pinky just deep enough to draw blood, then she bent her head down, licked the wound clean, and swallowed the bitter, coppery blood. Then she put a band-aid on it before handing a new, clean scalpel to Kazege and offering her own finger. Kazege understood and did the same thing. Not a word was exchanged through the process. Nothing needed to be said. They were as close now as they could be, and each reveled in the closeness. Now they were a part of each other.

After it was over they shared a hug and a smile, then Yashinko went back to her email while Yashinko cleaned the scalpels and put them away. Yashinko quickly finished up her email and turned off the computer.

"Well then, shall we go? You can pick where we eat if you'd like imouto-Ka-chan," she said as she got ready to leave.

"The usual sounds ok imouto-Ya-chan," Kazege replied with a wry grin.

And so the two girls, now blood-sisters, walked to their favorite restaurant, talking and laughing, forgetting all about their troubles. However there was still a question that Kazege wanted answered. "Why did what the girls said make you so happy anyway Ya-chan?"

Yashinko smiled in response and simply answered, "Because now this whole thing isn't my problem anymore. This war won't be affecting my club or its members any further." Now she had a reason to leave this conflict in the hands of someone more capable than she, who was more interested in war than her as well.

* * *

[1]: As I was writing this I remembered a scene almost the exact same as this in the anime The World God Only Knows. It was in the second episode and it was such an adorable scene.

* * *

Author's Note: From this point on my updates might begin to get slower as life interferes with writing. To make up for that, I **might** soon have a quintiple update for you, four chapters and some bonus material, all in one day. I tend to think about my story in a non-linear fashion so several chapters are partially written quite a while beforehand. So just bear with me for now my faithful readers. Now, onto another matter.

In all honesty I hadn't planned on doing this chapter at all. But while I was writing the brief interaction between Yashinko and the four STORM girls, I decided to go more in depth about STORM and its leader. Until now there hasn't been much seen of Yashinko and that which has been presented paints her in a poor light. But that doesn't mean that that is all there is too it. The question to consider for next time is this: How many villains are evil and how many just have bad publicity?


	24. Toaru Jōhō no Ichibu

Toaru Jōhō no Ichibu

A Certain Piece of Information

* * *

After school Misaka spent some time with Saten and Uiharu while Kuroko went off to do whatever it was she was going to do in order to avoid death-by-dorm-mistress. She hung out with them until it was time for her to go.

She made her way to the warehouse after a quick stop by the dorm to drop something off. As she began walking though, her mind was not focused,as it should be, on tactics, strategies, and plans for her upcoming battle. Instead she walked with a red face and a head full of unnecessary thoughts, unwanted thoughts, all brought on by that stupid little thing she hadn't even meant to buy.

"stupid, stupid, stupid," she scolded herself, "don't get sidetracked." She took a deep breath and tried to calm down, spending the rest of her trip trying her hardest not to think about it with predictably counter-productive results. She was so lost in thoughts of not thinking that she almost missed her stop.

As she stood in front of the warehouse her mind shifted immediately back to the business at hand. She had no plan but at last she could at least think straight about important things. She surveyed the warehouse. The lights inside were on, but no activity could be heard from within. She recalled, to the best of her ability, the layout of the warehouse, with all its boxes and crates pushed to one side. She decided that it would be best to enter through that side, using the crates as cover, and perhaps, later on, ammunition, until she found who she was looking for. Considering the reputed destructiveness of the girl's power, she knew that it would be best to be stealthy until the time came to strike.

So she entered the warehouse through the side door. It was locked with a mechanical lock. However this was not much of a deterrent. She took her container of iron sand out of her pocket and sent it flowing into the lock, pushing the tumblers up and into place, unlocking the door and allowing her to enter. She put the iron sand back in her pocket and cautiously opened the door, went in, and closed it again, careful not to make a sound.

The warehouse hadn't changed much since she had last been in. the only thing different was the opposite wall, now even more damaged and burned than it had been before. She ignored this and slowly, stealthily began weaving her way through the crates, keeping an eye out for anyone or anything. Sparks played along her hair, ready to be shot off in an instant. Misaka was tired of being caught by surprise. She was fighting in enemy territory, but she would not let them set the field this time. Her powers mapped out the environment, covering her blind spots and scanning in advance. Eventually they picked up something in an alcove of the warehouse. She creeped along the wall up to the corner, her sparks even larger and more aggressive as she got ready to strike.

Then she rounded the corner, ready to confront her opponents. However what she saw surprised her. There were two girls in Tokiwadai uniforms, one tall with long magenta hair, the other short, small, and quite sickly looking with mint green hair. That part was expected, but what was unexpected was what they were doing. They appeared to be sleeping, the short one on the tall one's lap, clinging to each other in a very familiar way. Apart from the hair the pair looked almost exactly like her and Kuroko…

Misaka was confused as to what she should do. Not willing to do something as heinous as zapping them as they slept. But she knew she shouldn't just walk away from this. She thought hard, trying to decide what to do when a small, metal crate suddenly collided with her back. The stack behind her fell over creating quite a racket as she was knocked forward by the collision, the crate stuck on her back by her own electromagnetism. She pushed it off of her but the damage was done. The tall girl's eyes fluttered open, she looked at Misaka and yawned. Then she smiled at her and held up her index finger in front of her mouth.

"hello Misaka-san," she said in a quiet voice, clearly trying not to wake the other girl, "I'm surprised to see you here. I'm Mai, can I help you with anything.

It was only then that Misaka realized that she had gone this entire time assuming that the two girls were enemies. She remembered that the reason she had come here. "Well… Hayami told me about you… you're her friend right?" She had come here to get information, not to fight.

"Yeah… how is she? I've heard some rumors about what happened but I don't know the truth," Mai asked, both curiosity and concern in her voice.

"She seemed fine when I talked to her."

"She always seems fine. That's the problem. She's so cheery all the time it's hard to tell what's gone on with her. Anyway… what did you come here for?"

"I had a few questions I wanted to ask you."

"Oh? Well that's fine, just give me a second," Mai said and then looked at the girl on her lap. She gently shook her shoulders, saying, "time to wake up my princess." Then she leaned down and kissed her. Misaka blushed at the sudden, unexpected display of affection and she quickly looked away. Though this type of affectionate display was all too familiar to Misaka, it was still embarrassing to see someone else do it.

After perhaps half of a minute, Mai's voice called out to Misaka again, "so what did you want to know?" she asked.

Misaka repressed her embarrassment and turned back to the two girls, now both awake and looking at her, but still in the same position as earlier. "I want to know more about STORM," she said simply.

"Ah yes. Your little conflict with the club, I'd almost forgotten. You've been causing quite the shake up in the club. Your Aijin[1] has recently caused a stir as well."

Misaka furrowed her brow, "what does Kuroko have to do with…" she paused, "wait… what did you say?"

Mai grinned. "So you two are like that eh?"

Misaka blushed and took a step backwards, caught completely off guard, "what do you mean… Me and Kuroko are… I thought you said Yuujin[2] is all…"

Mai ignored her protests and continued to tease her, "But you have other friends, so how would you immediately know I was talking about her? It seems that the rumors were true. I've thought so for a while, you two are quite close, even if many of the other girls refuse to believe so. It certainly explains why you're so protective of each other. Though, considering you two are girlfriends don't you believe you're a little too harsh and violent towards her?"

At this point Misaka had gone from embarrassed to angry. Mai saw as large sparks erupted from her forehead and her hands curled into fists. Mai's grin dropped and she adopted a more serious tone, "I'd suggest you calm yourself down," she said pointing to the small, green, marble-like ball that she had tossed at Misaka's feet when she was prudishly looking away from their kiss. "That right there is uranium-238. Even that tiny amount will completely and utterly annihilate you if you attempt to hurt me or my princess. Don't mistake me though, I am not saying I will do so without provocation, I am still willing to help you. But I am not willing to allow you to intimidate or threaten us."

"Why exactly are you helping me," Misaka asked, angry at herself for dropping her guard and allowing her to get something so dangerous so close. Now she was being far more cautious and suspicious.

"A friend asked me to," Mai explained, "besides; I would prefer you to win this little conflict. The reason that STORM chooses destructive powers is so that Yashinko's father can study us and our powers for his weapon manufacturing business. I am not going to let my princess be a research subject. But quitting this faction is not as easy as one might think, so the only chance we have of leaving is if you disband it. Preferably without us getting hurt in the process."

"And how exactly can I do that? Disband the faction?"

"From what I understand the faction is kept afloat by support from Yashinko's father who does it so that he can profit off of studying us. If, however, his company sustains losses that outweight the profits, then his support would likely fall apart. I hear they've been building some fancy new powered-suits. Start destroying those and STORM should be gone quickly enough."

"I've seen them before, in the other warehouses. Are they in all of them? Is there one here?"

"Not to the best of my knowledge, no. I'm not quite sure about the others either. I don't exactly have the shipping logs. And most shipments are in between the times when the warehouses are reserved."

"Reserved? So there's like a schedule?"

"Of course there is, Yashinko keeps the complete on her computer at STORM's headquarters, though there is an incomplete version on the bulletine board there. For the shipping logs you'd probably want to go to one of the factories. They'd have it on the computers there. They're closed on sunday so that would probably be the best time. That's all the information I have for you."

"What about what you said earlier, about Kuroko causing a stir?"

"So you do care about your girlfriend after all."

"She's….just… yes I care about my **friends**, what of it?"

"Someone who does everything to protect the one that they care about more than anything, that kind of person is far more worthy of help in my eyes than someone who fights only for themselves. That's the reason you're here alone, you choose to keep the one you love out of the fray and the reason I am so willing to help you," Mai explained, "now about your girlfriend. There was a bit of talk going on about a run-in she had with some STORM members last night."

"what happened?" Misaka asked, concerned but also confused. Kuroko hadn't said anything about this to her. Could that have been why she was late?

"Given how Kai was so damn jumpy in class, I'd wager she traumatized them. They say that your girlfriend's a little unstable, though she only does it to protect you and your honor, so I can sympathize."

Misaka clenched her fist. She hated hearing these ridiculous rumors. Kuroko was perhaps a little bit crazy at times but she was not "unstable". Misaka knew just how much rumors could hurt, and she had never been nearly as unpopular as Kuroko. She couldn't imagine just what she had to go through each day.

"Thanks, I'll see what I can do about these powered-suits," Misaka said as she turned around and left the warehouse, heading back home, once again lost in thought.

Why couldn't she keep the people she cared about safe. Her conflicts always ended up hurting them. Misaka could only hope that she hadn't been too badly hurt, that her failure hadn't, once again, hurt her yuu…aijin.

Unfortunately that thought brought up another matter. The rumors that Mai had been talking about, about them being together. The way she had talked about them they had been going on for a long time, even before they were true. 'they probably all think it's just some rumor right…' she thought to herself, trying to talk herself out of the possibility that everyone in school knew that they were in a relationship and would soon start treating her like some sort of freak for liking girls and all the other things that people did when they found out about another person's tendencies.

She tried to come up with something else to think about to take her mind off of this. Unfortunately for her, she succeeded. Her mind turned, instead, to the same stream of thoughts that had occupied her on her way to this place. The embarassing string of thoughts were made even worse by the situation, because now the thoughts were of Kuroko. She hit her head against a pole trying to purge the impure, Kuroko-like, Kuroko-filled thoughts from her head to no effect. She remained like this all the way until she made it back to the dorm and went into her room.

"Ah Onee-sama, you're back. How was your day," Kuroko asked her as she entered.

"Oh… fine… how was your… thingy…?" Misaka answered awkwardly, trying her hardest to keep her voice even. Still she couldn't look at Kuroko. Today's events had put her off, and every glance at Kuroko exacerbated her embarrassment. So without another word or glance, without even waiting for an answer, she went into the bathroom for a long, cold shower.

When she was finished she walked out to see all the lights were off and Kuroko was already asleep, curled into a little ball at the far end of her bed. Misaka lifted up the blanket and settled herself in as well, trying to keep as much distance from her bedmate as possible until she finally fell asleep.

* * *

[1]: Aijin=lover

[2]: Yuujin=friend. The reason I left it in Japanese, as you probably guessed, is because they are easy to mistake for one another in Japanese, but not in English.

* * *

**Important Note: Looking for additional beta-readers to help go over new and old chapters for errors.**

* * *

Author's Note: Sorry that this is such a short chapter (but a quickly uploaded one at least), but sometimes there just isn't much to say. Given how I was building up the destructiveness of Mai's power , this chapter may be a disappointment to fans of Misaka's action scenes (though due to the nature of their powers, their fight would have been like playing tag with rockets, which is quite boring to hear described). Indeed the next couple chapters might be. Partially because the next few chapters focus on Kuroko, and partially because the next chapter that focuses on Misaka isn't an action chapter. Though I admit that part of the reason for the lack of Misaka's fights is because I like Kuroko's fights better. Her conflict arc is more interesting and provides an opportunity for a larger array of bad guys, rather than just the members and resources of one school club.


	25. Toaru Kazoku no Hanashi

Toaru Kazoku no Hanashi

A Certain Talk of Families

* * *

After leaving school and saying goodbye to her beloved Onee-sama, Kuroko steeled herself for the daunting task ahead of her. She knew that an apology now would be much better than trying to evade her for however long it took for her to calm down naturally, which, knowing her, would probably be only shortly before the heat death of the universe. Though she had confidence in her plan she could not completely still her quivering knees as she walked towards Cypress Park where the dorm mistress worked today.

The logic behind her destination was simple. As Kuro so helpfully pointed out, the dorm mistress acted far less harsh and angry towards those kids and seemed generally more at ease at that place. She would be much more likely to hear out Kuroko than back at the dorm. And even if worst came to worst and she was still as angry as she had been last night, it would be the one place where she would not dare be violent against her, for fear of hurting her reputation with the children there.

"Though I wouldn't have had to put up with these worries if perhaps you weren't quite as hostile last night," Kuroko said pointedly to Kuro.

_There was no real alternative I'm afraid. If I simply stood there and let her inflict an injury even more grievous than the one already received, an act which would have had the additional effect of alerting her to your bullet wound after being rendered unconscious, then you would have been in even more trouble than for simple insubordination. My actions followed the best and most logical course to ensure your continued well being._

Kuroko sighed. "You're right," she said, sounding slightly disappointed "as usual. It's all my fault for forgetting the chambered round and getting shot in the first place."

_The fault actually does lie with me. I was the one who dawdled in returning, making us late. I was simply telling you why my reaction to that situation was justified, not trying to lift the blame off myself._

"Thanks for trying to spare my feelings but I know that it's all my fault. This whole thing has been my choice and it is my duty to face the consequences."

_Your forced pseudo-maturity does not suit you._

"Shut up," Kuroko hissed. Kuro obliged, knowing how sensitive Shiro was on this topic. The two did not exchange any more words until they reached their destination, where Kuroko saw a suprising sight. It was a familiar face, but not one she expected to find here. She grinned as she walked up to the young man who was sweeping outside the fence of the school.

"Surprising to see you here. It's been a while," she said casually. The man jumped in the air and turned around quickly.

"Th-th-the Oni..." he spluttered, backing up to the wall, "Hey I haven't done anything bad recently. I promise I've gone straight. Please don't hurt me."

"If that's true then I have no reason to hurt you do I? It's good to hear you have turned around. Isn't it a much better feeling than committing crimes?"

"... yeah," the man said hesitantly. Though he had been reluctant at first, only being goaded into this by his newfound terror in the law enforcement system, he had found that he actually enjoyed the work. He had joined skillout looking for a place to belong, but found that he belonged here as much as he belonged there. The work was a little harder but it was much more fulfilling.

"So just keep on the straight and narrow and we won't have problems. I am a demon of justice, not massacre," she said with a grin, finally accepting the nickname as a compliment rather than an insult. The man nodded in response and Kuroko went into Cypress Park to look for the dorm mistress, leaving him to his work.

_Fear is a powerful tool and its effects are not all negative._

Kuroko rolled her eyes at Kuro's gloating but didn't say a word.

* * *

She saw the dorm mistress overseeing as the children played on the playground. She took a deep breath and walked up to her. "Um... dorm mistress," she began. The dorm mistress turned to her and when her eyes fell upon Kuroko they lit up with an angry flame, but her bearing did not change to show this newfound rage. She did not speak, waiting for Kuroko to continue, which she did, "I wanted to apologize for yesterday. My actions and words were quite rude and I'm very sorry."

The apology seemed to surprise the dorm mistress and suspicion replaced the anger in her eyes. "Is that all you have to say about it," she asked.

"As you yourself have said before, one's circumstances do not justify one's actions. I apologize for what I did and will not waste your time with excuses," Kuroko said humbly, counting on the dorm mistress's natural disdain for justification to try and avoid having to come up with a lie for what she was doing last night, or worse, telling the truth.

However luck was not on her side with this and the suspicion did not abate from her eyes, "I have plenty of time right now. Why don't you go ahead and tell me your side of the story," she said, trying to keep her voice level, even happy, for the sake of the children who were running around and saw her as a beacon of kindness.

Seeing no alternative Kuroko took a deep breath and decided that it would be best if she was honest. "A puppy. I was saving a puppy that had fallen onto the monorail tracks. It was quite out of my way, and by the time I got there, rescued him, and made sure she was alright, curfew was already in place."

The anger that had vanished flared up once again within the dorm mistress's eyes, though her voice remained level as she said, "you really expect me to believe that?"

"It's true," Kuroko defended, getting out her phone and showing her the pictures that Kuro, in her infinite foresight, had remembered to take of the puppy in question both before and after it had been rescued, "I was going to file a missing pet report at Judgment but it was far too late so I decided to take a picture and wait until tomorrow when I next have work."

"Puppy?" asked one of the children who had suddenly appeared in front of the two at the mention of a cute furry thing, "where's the puppy? Can I pet it?"

Kuroko was slightly taken aback by this. "umm... no it's not actually with me?" she awkwardly tried to explain. She was not very good with kids, hardly having the best role models for child care. "It's just a picture."

The child's sparkling eyes dulled in her disappointment. "Oh... no puppy."

"Well," Kuroko said trying to say something to comfort the child, "Since there are no pets at the dorm the puppy needs a place to stay until the owner is found. I could bring her here if you promise to look after him."

The child's eyes lit up again and she looked to the dorm mistress, "Oba-chan can we? Can we get a puppy?"

"You'll have to ask Kazuko-sensei,"she responded with that kind motherly tone so different from her usual voice of harsh, unrelenting rage that it made Kuroko wonder which was her true face. The child ran off smiling and giggling at the prospect and the dorm mistress looked back at Kuroko. She looked thoughtful for a moment then spoke, her voice dropping to a more neutral level, "very well. I shall excuse the lateness but you will still receive a detention for the insubordination. After school on Friday you will be responsible for cleaning Tokiwadai's pool, alone."

Kuroko bowed, "thank you," she said with relief in her voice. She had been spared most of the dorm mistress's wrath.

The child came rushing back out, out of breath but smiling. "Kazuko-sensei said yes! We get a puppy?"

"Ok..." Kuroko said, "I guess I'll go and get him and bring her here. I'll be back shortly." she said before teleporting off and back to the dorms. She went to the back and went up to the bush she had hidden the puppy under last night. It was still there and when she saw Kuroko he barked happily."hey there little guy. I found you a nice home." she said to it as she stooped down to pick it up. "We're going there now so hold on."

She teleported back to the facility and deposited the puppy, leaving shortly afterwards, sighing as she began walking off with no particular destination in mind.

_You're upset. You were upset last time you went to that place as well._

"I wonder why?" Kuroko quipped sarcastically, "You know why I feel that way and you know how much I don't like to talk about it."

_Very well. I understand. You have every right to be upset. I apologize for bringing them up._

* * *

There was silence for a few minutes then Kuroko began to respond. Before she could get a single word out, however, she heard a noise to her side. She turned immediately to look and saw a baseball bouncing along the pavement, and sliding along behind it was a sleek silver handgun. Turning around fully she saw four men, between 16 and 20 years old and dressed in casual business attire. All of them but one held a similar silver handgun, all of them pointed at her.

Her hand, which had been hanging by her hip, immediately touched the needles on her thighs. She teleported the needles into the barrels of the gun into the bullet and firing pin, disabling them. As she did that another baseball flew out of nowhere at high speed, clipping one of the men in the head, sending him to the ground unconscious. With the guns disabled she could now engage in relative safety, teleporting above the shoulders of one of the men and driving her heel into the back of his neck and shoulders, sending him to the ground. The she teleported to the other and kicked him in the back, pushing him down as she landed behind them, ready to take out the last, knocking him out with a well-placed needle into the nerve bundles in his neck.

For the first time since turning around and seeing the guns pointed at her she allowed herself to breath as she scanned the area carefully for anyone or anything else. Several feet away stood another man. He looked to be in his early to mid-twenties. He was very well dressed in a nice, fancy business suit and black silk tie. His hair looked recently done into a professional looking style. His face was neutral, with a bit of curiosity as he looked at Kuroko but holding no surprise at the spectacle that had just occurred. One hand was in his pocket while the other tossed a baseball into the air repeatedly.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

Kuroko took a deep breath and tried to quiet her still quickly beating heart. "I'm fine. Thank you for your assistance," she said.

"It was no problem at all miss…" he said, pausing as he waited for her to tell him her name.

"Kuroko, Shirai Kuroko." She told him.

For a moment his face contorted as if trying to remember something. Then a look of realization came upon his features, "Ah. You're Birdy's friend. I'm Itora Hitoyashu. I take it she's told you of me. I must say this is quite a stroke of luck."

"Yes she's told me about you. You're her employer correct?"

"I prefer the term "patron" personally."

"Patron," Kuroko corrected. Then she asked, "why is it a stroke of luck exactly?"

"Well if you were someone else, especially another Judgment agent, it would be far more difficult and take far longer to figure out why this happened. But since you already know about—well us—I don't have to worry about giving out any information. I can just ask you straight out: why did these men attack you?"

"I don't know," Kuroko said, "I don't know who they are or why they tried to kill me."

"I can tell you who they are. They are members of the Honogun crime family, low level grunts called bruisers who handle the majority of the dirty work. We heard something via one of our informants; I believe Birdy's told you about him, his name is Riko. He told us that they were moving in on something quite suddenly and told us their approximate location. It's a good thing they took so long to find you, I barely got here on time as it is."

"Honogun…" Kuroko said slowly, remembering the events of last night as well as Kuro's warning, "So that's why…"

"You have a theory?"

"First, if you could tell me why you came in the first place. What's your place in all of this? Birdy has told me some things about the families and all of that but I still don't know too much."

"Fair enough," Itora said with a shrug, "though how about we walk and talk. I do not know if there are any more people gunning for you so I think it would be safer elsewhere."

Kuroko agreed and the two began walking off, Itora in the lead and Kuroko walking beside him. "So you know of the family and what we do correct?" After a nod from Kuroko he continued, "Well, in order to operate, the families have to have organization. There is a chief board which oversees the various operations and keeps the families from getting at each other's throats too much and putting us all at risk. It is quite similar to Academy City's own board of directors. In fact two of the members of the Board of Directors are on the Board of Merchants, as we call ourselves. Making up the Board are the heads of each group. A single group may contain multiple families with either widely varied or very similar companies. The group that I lead contains seven different companies, including my own."

"However," he continued, "not all of the members play along very well. The Honogun family is far more brutal and cutthroat in their tactics than the rest of us and they violate several of the rules. The problem is that they are too powerful to take down easily and the board is very slow to make any kind of decision, as any governing body is. So, rather than taking it down all at once, we try to ensure that they don't break any rules and straighten out the rules they do break as quickly as possible. But, though we can take measures to counteract their actions, it does not help if we can only get there afterwards. So it would be a great help if we knew why they would try something as risky as an abduction in broad daylight."

"Abduction? Since when do you use handguns to abduct?" Kuroko asked skeptically.

"A bullet through the leg is as good as any tranquilizer dart. That is just how the Honoguns operate," Itora said, disgust in his voice.

"I don't know the exact reason why but it has something to do with Yashinko. She attempted a similar abduction last night."

"No. That wouldn't be enough of a reason. Yashinko doesn't have too much sway over her father. He only makes decisions that would benefit him. It has to…" he paused for a second, "Birdy was asking not too long ago about a certain device. I believe they're called the Horns of Jericho. She said that it was for a friend. Interestingly enough she began to mention it around the time she began to tell us about a friend she met named Kuroko. I told her about one of them that had been obtained by a rather distasteful private contractor group. That very night that I told her, the group's headquarters was annihilated by an unknown assailant and all of its members were arrested. But though the place was raided by the police, turning up several pieces of contraband, the Horn of Jericho wasn't found."

"Yes I retrieved it from them. Is that significant?"

"In addition to being a member of the Board of Merchants I am also the leader of the ESPer labor union, a group that seeks to find ways to adapt ESPer powers for use in industry. I rely on ESPer powers and have no interest in something which can disable them. However the Honogun's look at such a thing and see a valuable weapon. If they knew you possessed one they would attempt to get it from you at any cost."

"I see…" was all Kuroko said in response.

"I must say you are taking this quite well. Most people don't respond to this kind of peril with such poise.

"I'm in Judgment I am used to this kind of danger." was her simple reply, "I have been shot at before." _You shouldn't treat this with such disdain. The last time was a carefully placed shot meant to incapacitate, not kill. The next time you might not be so lucky._

"Really… going into such danger without any protection? Don't you get hurt?"

"Yes but not that badly. The alternative is some bulky bulletproof vest that I'd have to wear all the time." Kuroko responded to both Kuro and Itora.

Itora grinned and his voice slipped into a smoother, suaver tone, sounding now like the businessman he appeared to be, "and what if there was another option, a more subtle option? You are from Tokiwadai so you must have some money to spare, and you have already purchased some pieces of technology from the black market. Well it just so happens that one of the companies in the group I control happens manufacture various pieces of technology and recently got a contract to build a suit of stealth armor for the special forces. However there was some confusion during the manufacturing stage of the first set of prototypes. They were far too small for an adult male. The degree was too large to be fixed by simple adjustments and the material was too difficult to recycle, so they were scraped. However the research, development, and manufacturing of those prototypes was far too costly and with no results to show their grant was suspended."

"However, while it can't fit an adult male, it could easily fit someone of your size. Since they would otherwise go unused you could purchase them for a fraction of the price and all you would have to do is tell them how well the suit performs."

"What's the catch?" Kuroko asked, reasonably suspicious.

"I'm technically selling you defective merchandise. Most people would see that as enough of a catch."

"But other than its size it's not defective right?"

"Correct. Other than the size it should work perfectly."

"Tell me more," Kuroko said with Kuro's encouragement.

"Well for starters it is almost completely bulletproof. It protects perfectly against any cutting weapon as well. Though the blunt force of the bullets and the blade can still hurt you. It can be worn two ways. One is the armor plus the padding, which protects you from blunt trauma as well as cutting or piercing. However that adds considerable bulk. The other way is without the padding, making you more vulnerable but allowing you to wear it under clothing. You don't have to wear the whole suit either. The chest, arms and legs, and helmet are all separate pieces and can be worn in any combination." He continued on extolling the amazing properties of the armor, excited to be talking about such an interesting piece of equipment.

"Very well," Kuroko said. She had had a hard time keeping up but what she had understood had greatly impressed her. "It sounds quite useful. So how much is it."

Itora opened his mouth to say something then his eyes lit up with an idea. "How about nothing? You do me a little favor and I'll give it to you for free."

"What's the favor…"

"It's a little problem we've been having. One of the families of another group has recently gotten into a rather distasteful business. It's a disgrace to the other families and a dangerous venture on top of that. The longer it is allowed to continue the higher the risk of detection. You are in Judgment, so you have the authority to disband it correct."

"I can't do that," Kuroko said, appalled at the notion of using her powers to such a corrupt end.

"Are you sure? It is such a distasteful venture I thought you would be eager to stop it. Gambling based on some stupid sport or another. Street racing I think. I can give you all the information you need, are you sure you won't help me."

Kuroko gave it a lot of thought. "fine…" she finally, begrudgingly accepted while inwardly grinning at her particularly good stroke of luck today, "What do I need to do."

Itora filled her in on the information. Tomorrow there would be a big meeting between the leader of the brokers and the facilitator of the races at a warehouse downtown. There would be one of the signal detection devices so she was advised not to bring along anything that might warn them of her presence.

"Can they detect internet connections?" She asked when told that.

"They can but they're disregarded. The program written that sorts out the signals puts them at the bottom in terms of priority. They're far too common these days to bother.

"I see," she responded, a plan forming in her head.

After being told of the time and place she was fitted for the armor at the company and told to come back tomorrow after she had finished with the gambling ring and they had finished making adjustments. After that she left, leaving Itora to speak with Garu, the head of the company that had made the armor and a childhood friend.

"It seems your plan was a success." Garu said to Itora.

"Yes. Birdy has often brought home wounded birds and stray cats. She enjoys helping others and taken care of them, it seems that this time that works out in our favor."

"Are you planning on using her against the Honoguns?"

"She will eventually face them no matter what we do. But if we help her here she might actually survive, even succeed in fighting them."

"This is impressive even for you. You managed to fix the problem with the prototype, the gambling problem, and the Honogun problem all in one move. Assuming she succeeds that is."

"I have faith in her. Her ability is powerful and she knows how to use it. From what Riko tells me she can be trusted to succeed and you know how easy it is to manipulate cops."

"True enough," Garu said taking out a cigar and lighting it. He then offered one to Itora.

"No thank you," Itora responded politely, "you know how bad those things are for your health."

Garu shrugged and put it away, "I wouldn't expect you to put a child in so much danger though. Normally you love them, like that little child error you have, Birdy."

"Birdy was different. She was just a lonely kid without a family, trying hard to survive in this bitter world. When I first found her she had just had her legs broken by a rival runner, a true broken bird. But she still had potential, she still has kindness and warmth and compassion. Even after that she still trusted people and she welcomed the opportunity to have a family. That girl, Kuroko, is different. Every time I mentioned the word family her fist curled up a little tighter. The very notion of family or trust seems to repulse her. She's no child."

"So what is she."

Itora favored Garu with a smile, "why a business partner of course."

Garu returned the smile, "of course. Everything's a business, isn't that right?"

* * *

Kuroko arrived home after her eventful day to an empty dorm room. There was still a little under an hour before her Onee-sama had said she'd be home by, which meant that she had a little time alone to work out the stress of the day.

She walked over to her bed and began feeling under it until she found what she was looking for. She pulled out a large brown book. She took it over to her Onee-sama's bed and laid down. She touched the padlock that held the book shut and teleported it off, then she opened it up to the first page to reveal several pictures of her Onee-sama, a far more pleasant way to work out her frustration than hitting a punching bag.

After an extensive view of the first page she began to leaf through the rest of her secret photo album, glancing briefly at each picture as she saw their progression. At first it was a simple slew of fairly explicit photos, taken at great personal risk just after she had fallen in love with her Onee-sama. Though, in those days, lust was a more accurate term. She had been so foolish back then, so confused about her feelings that she had seen the whole thing as a purely physical attraction.

Then other types of pictures began to show up, far more PG ones: Pictures of her Onee-sama's cute sleeping face, pictures of her smiling, pictures of her laughing, pictures of her just sitting there looking thoughtful. This was when she had discovered that her attraction was more than just physical, when she learned that Onee-sama was her soulmate, the one she would love forever and ever.

Then she came to a very particular point. It was the day this book had been discovered by Saten, before she had hidden it and gotten a lock. Though it wasn't marked it was easy to tell that it was a significant point, because after that point the album became far more… normal. There were still a few photographs that she did not want her Onee-sama to know she had, but far fewer than earlier. Perhaps the biggest difference was the fact that other people began showing up in the photos. There was always her Onee-sama, but Saten and Uiharu showed up as well. But there was one thing that didn't change at all throughout the book…

She smiled but there was melancholy in her smile. She turned to the very back of the book and began scrawling things in it with a, trying to make herself feel better by plunging into her fantasies, but it hardly helped. She had just finished when the door opened. Surprised Kuroko quickly teleported the book, still open, down a few inches to its place under her bed, or it would have been in its place had she been on her bed rather than her Onee-sama's.

"Ah Onee-sama, you're back. How was your day," Kuroko asked, head down and voice steady.

"oh… fine… how was your… thingy…?" Her Onee-sama asked her, though something seemed to be wrong with her. She wouldn't look at Kuroko at all, and her voice had a slight tremor in it. Without even waiting for an answer she went off to the bathroom, so seemingly appalled by Kuroko's presence that she wanted to be out of it immediately.

Needless to say this behavior made her feel about as far from better as possible. She stood up and turned the lights off then she curled up on the far end of the bed and quietly sang her lullaby to herself until she fell asleep.

* * *

Author's Note: Lying. Everyone does it, whether in fiction or not. However it poses a big problem in fiction. If someone lies about something and you fail to tell the reader about it, then do something later on that contradicts what was said, they see it as a plot hole, or something similar. It is the writers job to tell a story and the writers narration is the only thing the readers know about the world of the story. When an unbelievable coincidence happens that was actually planned out in world it cannot be known that it was anything other than a coincidence unless the characters or the author tells the readers about it. The readers trust in the narration completely and never assume you are lying. Even when two things contradict, they are more willing to believe that the writer made a mistake than that the characters made one.

To highlight my point I put forward a riddle told by Ricky Gervais: "A bloke, just in his swimming trucks, walks into a swimming pool full of man-eating sharks. He walks around for a bit, and slowly gets out the other side, and he's not bitten or anything. Why not?" The answer is that he was lying about the sharks. If you don't assume he is lying then you cannot get it right. But if you do assume that though, then you wouldn't have any fun with the riddle. The mystery is gone if you don't take the problem at face value.

But creating that mystery is the problem. How do you avoid lying in a mystery novel? Sometimes the reader needs to be misinformed or not informed at all. Sometimes there can only be tension if the reader is left questioning whether or not someone was truthful or not. Sometimes characters are mistaken or hiding things. Just because two things contradict each other in fiction does not mean that the writer is forgetful or mistaken or lazy. It is the writer's responsibility to tell a story that people can believe, however, so you cannot abuse this right or you will be stuck with an audience who takes nothing at face value and thus cannot enjoy the story.


	26. Toaru Kage no Jikan

Toaru Kage no Jikan

A Certain Time of Shadows

* * *

Kuroko stood in front of the bathroom sink looking into the mirror set above it. She opened up the mirror to reveal a medicine cabinet where they kept their toiletries and a few bottles of various pills. She retrieved two of the bottles. One of the bottles was the pain pills she had been prescribed a while ago. But though it was supposed to last for more than a month, there were only two left. She sighed as she took them to calm her aching shoulder and to dull the pain of her bullet wound. She then tossed the now empty bottle in the trash as she picked up the other one.

This bottle was more useful to her than oxygen. It was an over-the counter-supplement that warded off the effects of sleep deprivation and increased wakefulness. It was commonly used by students pulling off all-nighters to study for tests but she had also used it many times in the past for the infrequent nights when she would need to stay up late for Judgment work, but for the past couple weeks she had been taking them almost every day in order to function properly.

Considering that it was one in the morning and she had gotten less than four hours of very restless sleep, she decided that a double dose would probably be necessary to push her through until lunchtime. So she took the pills then put them back in the cabinet and walked out of the bathroom.

She now had several hours before her Onee-sama woke up. 'not that that really matters,' she thought to herself, 'it's not like I have to be here then. It's not like she even wants me around.' She clenched her left hand into a fist, 'No. I have more useful things to be doing than griping about things I can't change.' She got dressed and ready then picked up some things and teleported out of the dorm. She teleported several times in rapid succession until she reached one of her secret places.

There were 23 places that Kuroko had discovered which could only be accessed by teleporters. 19 of them were the roofs of buildings that didn't have a way to access them regularly, 3 of them were places where the paths to them had been obstructed, and 1 of them, her most secret and valued place, was underground and impossible to detect. She had found out about it through a complete accident during spring when she was just learning to teleport herself. In one of her first attempts she had accidently gotten the x and z coordinates screwed up in her head and teleported herself down instead of forward.

That mistake could have gotten her hurt or even killed had she not managed to teleport, by accident, into what looked to be an abandoned military compound. Though air flowed down to it through what Kuroko guessed were small cracks in the roof that reached the surface, there was no way to reached it through normal means. It was 50 meters underground and the corridors leading up to it were vitrified, frozen in glass, probably by the unknown previous resident.

It's walls were thick and heavy, lined with steel plates which protected the rooms dangerous contents. The room was a storage room and the walls were lined with weaponry: missles,guns, boxes of ammunition, two armored cars, a powered suit, and one large metal crate at the far end with multiple warning labels plastered onto it. Now there were a few more additions to that list, four suitcases more deadly than almost all of the other weapons due to their ability to disable ESPer powers. This was the only place that Kuroko could think of to store them where no one else could find them.

Kuroko had also made other, less dangerous, additions to the room. Because she lived in the dorm and had no other residence, this was the place where she kept everything she couldn't keep or didn't have room for in the dorm. There was her training equipment for her martial arts set up in the middle of the room. There were also a number of trophies from previous Judgment cases she had solved displayed in one corner alongside trophies that signified her other achievements, like her acceptance letter from Tokiwadai.

Today though she had no need for training and the room had few other benefits besides its remoteness. So she decided that she would go to another one of the remote places. This place was the roof of a massive white building, though at nights it glowed an eerie purple with red lines across its face. The building, oddly enough, had no doors or windows or ways to reach the top. But despite having no visible forms of entry and no way to access the roof, there was still a bench overlooking a small garden setup on top. She had never seen the gardener and indeed it never seemed that the odd flowers that populated the bulk of the garden were ever tended to, but they had always been in bloom and beautifully pristine when she came up here.

The flowers were odd in and of themselves. Kuroko had never seen anything like them. The thorny stems and velvet soft leaves were a deep crimson purple and looked almost artificial, or at least dyed. The flower itself looked an orchid blossoming within the petals of a lily[1]. The lily petals were pure white while the orchid petals were jet black. Through the middle of every petal, both white lily and black orchid, ran a blood red line that seemed to pool in the very center of the flower.

Even in the blackness of the night the garden was beautiful. The scent of the flowers wafted calmingly across the air. She sat down at the bench with the dim moonlight illuminating just enough to see. To most people in this situation this would be a time to curl up with a nice, enjoyable novel. Kuroko, however, was not most people. She didn't read much fiction at all and tonight was no different. She had with her the owner's manual for the suit of armor she was schedule to receive for tomorrow.

In addition to that she had also received something else yesterday before she had gone back to the dorms. It was the high tech headset for the armor disguised as an ordinary, if perhaps a bit gaudy, pair of mirrored sunglasses. They were not new technology, in fact Jango had had a pair of the exact same. However the technology was still amazing. It was capable of interpreting infrared and ultraviolet light and could even use a T-ray scanner which could be used to identify weapons under a suspect's clothing. Its HUD could be programmed with all manner of things including one of the more basic functions, a map of the area updated every fifth of a second by satellite imagery to ensure accuracy. Things like beacons could be added to the map to indicate a point of interest or, using the included tracking devices, track a target.

She spent the rest of the night here acquainting herself with all the functions of these glasses as well as the suit she would be receiving tomorrow after she took down the street racing ring… if she could. If she didn't mess this up like she had the bank robber case, or the graviton bombing case, or the…

_What's wrong Shiro. There's anger and despair bubbling inside you but you haven't said a word._

"It's nothing," she told Kuro with a voice of finality. She knew already what Kuro would say and she knew already that she would be right in saying it. Despair was pointless. She was too tired of crying to be giving up.

She would succeed and show everyone just how capable she was, just how useful she was. She would never allow herself to be an inconvenience; she would never prove **them** right.

_The moon is beautiful tonight isn't it?_

Kuroko looked up at the moon. It was full tonight. "yes it is," she agreed with a slight smile, "a white white moon in a black black sky." After that she calmed down and continued to read until morning. Then she packed up her book and went to school, stopping on the way to pick up a bite to eat.

* * *

Misaka walked the streets of the Garden of Education. School had just ended and she was going to Judgment Branch 177. This morning Kuroko hadn't been in the dorm when she woke up, and she hadn't seen her at school either. It was abnormal and Misaka was worried that there was something seriously wrong with her. She decided that if Kuroko skipped work there would be sufficient reason to worry, but if she was there then there was something else that was going on.

Misaka had heard yesterday from Mai that she had encountered some STORM members and wondered if that could have something to do with why she wasn't there. But if that was the case then Kuroko would have been on her case about the matter already. Kuroko never missed a chance to scold Misaka about whatever she perceived was her most recent mistake. It was just another of those annoying things that she did that Misaka disliked, and yet relied on in a way.

Since Misaka hadn't received an earful of reprimands yet she guessed that it was another matter, unrelated to this STORM business. She had been working on a case for Judgment, so that was the likeliest cause. Kuroko took her work completely seriously. Kuroko's obsession with her work was perhaps the only thing that could match her obsession with Misaka . It was the only thing that could distract her enough to draw her away from her Onee-sama.

If that was the case then her odd behavior would be over as soon as the case was solved. And if that was true maybe she would benefit from the assistance of a level 5...

It would distract her from her own mission but she was sure it could be wrapped up quickly with her help and helping Kuroko was just as important to her as fighting STORM, if not more so. Of course Kuroko would object if she knew that Misaka was helping, like she always did, so she would need to help discretely. With this decided she left the Garden of Education and picked up the pace to her destination.

On the way she came across a familiar face. "Hey Saten-san," she said, walking over to her. Saten looked up and gave Misaka a slight smile, though her face seemed to have an expression of sadness and worry that the faked smile couldn't help to shake off.

"Oh, hey Misaka-san," Saten replied, her normally lively voice was far more subdued than usual.

"What's up? Where's Uiharu? Don't you two usually walk together?"

"I could ask the same of Kuroko…" she said then sighed, "I made a mistake and I think I made Uiharu mad at me. I'm not sure what I should do. I'm think I should go and apologize but…" she trailed off.

"What happened?" Misaka asked, curious as to what Saten could have done to make someone like Uiharu mad.

"Well, you see, this morning we were walking to school together. She had gotten up late and was still kind of sleepy and everything. So, in order to perk her up a little, I decided to flip her skirt…"

It seemed normal so far so what had happened that had embarrassed her? Saten flipped her skirt all the time so what could have happened to... Suddenly it dawned on her, "Wait… you don't mean to say that…"

Saten nodded, "she was so tired that she forgot them. There wasn't anyone around so I was the only person to see," she continued, clearly upset and with an air of guilt in her voice, "but when she realized, she ran home bawling. I saw her later on so she went to school in the end but I haven't talked to her since then. Don't tell her I've told you, I shouldn't have told you but I don't know what to do…"

"Just apologize when you see her. She'll understand if you say you're sorry."

Saten nodded again, "ok. I'll apologize as soon as I see her."

That particular event ended up being sooner than expected as, a couple of minutes later, Uiharu ran up to the two of them, looking slightly upset and tired. "what happened Saten-san," she demanded, "I thought we were going to walk to Judgment together, I waited for you."

This took Saten a bit aback. They had decided upon that yesterday but after this morning… "I wasn't sure you still wanted to go with me… I thought you were mad," She said.

"Why would you think that?" Uiharu asked, genuinely curious.

"Well… after what happened this morning…" she said slightly embarrassed.

Uiharu blushed, remembering what had happened. But still, "that wasn't your fault, why would I be mad at you for that? I mean I don't like you flipping my skirt but… at least it was only you who saw it right… it's not like you did it somewhere public …" She blushed deeper and deeper as she tried to make her point but only ended up digging her own grave.

"So you're not mad?" Saten asked, wanting to make sure.

Rather than risking another embarrassing rambling sentence, Uiharu simply shook her head. However she still ended up blushing the next moment as Saten enveloped her in a hug. "I'm glad," Saten said.

"Saten-saaaaan… people are staring," Uiharu said.

Misaka smiled at the scene. She was glad that nothing had happened between those two.

After that the three walked off together. "By the way did you find out about that thing we talked about yesterday?" Saten asked.

"No. Kuroko wasn't there this morning so I couldn't coax the answer out of her. I couldn't find anything on her schedule either."

"Oh well," Uiharu said as they arrived at the offices, "we'll find out."

When they entered the office they saw that Konori was there as well as Kuroko, who was sitting at her desk with her computer, typing away. This put Misaka's mind at ease and she walked up to her. "Hey Kuroko, how is the case coming? And what's with the sunglasses?"

"The case is coming along fine, in fact I am about to go investigate a lead," Kuroko said as she stood up. She looked to Uiharu, "I'll need you to provide backup but maintain radio silence," she said, "If I need to contact you I'll do it through personal cell phone, don't use the Judgment phones. Understood?"

Uiharu was surprised by the authority in Kuroko's voice. "Hai," she replied obediently.

"And why is radio silence necessary," Konori asked, though whether out of concern or suspicion Kuroko didn't know.

"In case they are in possession of another one of those devices," Kuroko answered, "don't worry. If I engage more opponents than I can handle I will be sure to get backup before engaging."

"Any more than 3 and you call in, understood?" Konori said.

Kuroko nodded and teleported away. She had everything necessary for her plan prepared and ready. It would soon be time for the meeting to begin so she teleported to the roof of the building adjacent to the warehouse.

* * *

Crouching down she looked at the building in question. It was a large warehouse that was completely unremarkable. She turned on the infrared filter on her glasses to attempt to identify whehter or not people were inside or not. This turned out to be a fruitless endeavor as, contrary to her expectations, the only heat it was picking up was that of the walls. So she switched to the T-ray imaging, which she found far better.

She could see through the concrete of the walls several bodies which the complex computer that the glasses ran on told her were humans. The computer, though powerful, was small enough to fit in her bag and used a wireless connection with heavy encryption to link with the glasses. The T-ray imagery also allowed her to see the massive iron beams that composed the internal ceiling and support structure of the warehouse. She identified the main one and teleported on top of it, getting her into the building onto a place where she could likely remain undetected for the entire duration.

Below her she could see several people in suits with suitcases, as well as one man in a chair with the signal detection and jamming device on his lap, working it diligently. She dug in her pocket for the photograph she had been given yesterday of the go-between between the racers and the bookies, Lao. He was the one who had organized this entire thing on behalf of the Agiko family. That was definitely him, which meant that this was definitely the right place.

Kuroko smiled and got to work. She set up the webcam and directional microphone that she had brought along, pointing it towards the meeting then turning it on. This setup linked directly to the internet, to a site that Kuroko had set up just prior to this engagement. Kuroko's computer skills weren't the best but it had been a simple task. The site streamed the image and audio from her setup and also had a chat box to allow her to communicate through a medium she knew wouldn't trigger the jamming all she needed was an audience.

For this she texted Uiharu. "I need you to go to this website and patch it through to Anti-Skill. Send comfirmation via the website when you have done so" She told her and sent the link. She was monitoring the website using the left lense of her sunglasses while the right lense was left clear to allow her to observe. As she waited she curled her body up into a lotus position and began meditating. She needed full concentration for this.

Soon Uiharu sent a message on the site that she had patched it through and asking what this was all about. However, as if to answer that question for her,the men began to speak. "They'll be arriving soon," Lao said, "What's the status on security?"

"No suspicious signals," the man in the chair said, "The four lookouts are on the street corners observing the roads with Hawk model-12 binoculars. Not even a rat is going to slip through." Hawk was the company that had produced the sunglasses (which were model-27) that Jango and now Kuroko wore. She guessed the binoculars had similar functions but, as earlier models, were far larger.

Lao took a walkie talkie out of his pocket. "Lookouts report in." There was a short pause as he held it up to his ear. Neither Kuroko's ears nor the directional microphone were powerful enough to hear what was said but Lao nodded as he heard it, "They're here," he said several seconds before a large truck rolled into the center of the warehouse. Several people hopped out of the truck and one walked back to close the door.

As this was happening Kuroko switched once again to the T-ray imaging and identified, one by one, the location of the lookouts. They were too far away for an accurate reading but they at least were easily identifiable on the crowded streets because of the remote locations they had chosen to view the streets. She checked the map of the area on her glasses and attempted to determine their blind spots.

Though they covered all the major avenues their field of vision did not overlap. So Kuroko put in her headphones to listen in to the conversation back in the warehouse as she took out the lookouts one by one, taking maybe half of a minute to complete the task.

* * *

As she did so the men back in the factory began to talk. "You've made it," said Lao once the door was closed, "I take it you brought them."

"Of course," Said the other man. Contrary to Lao's business attire this man was dressed quite casually, in a biker's jacket and jeans. He was a tall, old man and quite broad at the shoulders, once again contrasting with the short, thin and quite young Lao. He snapped his fingers and the side of the truck opened up like a garage door, revealing several motorcycles with people standing beside each of them. "10 new bikes and riders to replace the ones that your man got caught."

"This is neither the time nor place to assign blame Mr Ha-Li." Lao said, almost rolling his eyes at the man's ridiculous psuedonym.

"You were the ones who were supposed to ensure that we didn't get caught. And the second bloody day in this district we lose 7 riders."

"I am aware of these problems Ha-Li and rest assured that we will not allow a similar event to happen again."

* * *

By this time Kuroko had dispatched the lookouts and had returned. Before teleporting back to her perch though she stopped by the large metal door of the warehouse. This was the place where the truck had entered and it had, in addition to a newer electronic system, an old fashioned iron beam closing mechanism. When the iron beam was laid across from the inside then it was this had been discarded a while ago and now the iron beam simply lay on the ground outside, rusting away. Kuroko touched it, giving it a chance once again to fulfill its duty as a lock as she teleported it directly into the door.

Once that was done she sealed the other entrances with her nails and teleported back inside. She got out the keyboard that she had brought along and typed out on the keyboards special noiseless keys, "Lookouts disabled, doors sealed. Deployment is safe but only do so under radio silence."

After that she switched to infrared vision again. This time she looked at the truck and attempted to locate the engine. This time it worked far better. She could easily identify the hot engine even past the metal. Though she still didn't know anything about automobiles. So she simply filled it full of nails to disable it. Then she disabled the bikes using the same method as before, putting needles in the spinny things. This time she didn't have to worry about running out, as she had brought along her bandoleer this time.

"Truck and motorcycles disabled," she typed out before resuming listening to the dealings below her.

* * *

"Let's see if you can actually back up that promise this time. Those fancy devices of yours didn't do much last time."

"The Shimmer-Screens are the most advanced signal detection and selective jamming devices that there are equipped with advanced sorting and prioritization software developed by Simurgh Associations," the man in the chair said, "the problem was with your people. Eleven of your people lost to a single little girl."

"Silence," said Lao authoritatively, "let us get back to business. Do you have the specs on the new bikes and riders."

"Yeah I got your precious little numbers right here you glorified bean counter," Ha-Li said, brandishing a sheaf of paper, "specs on all the bikes and riders. Do you have our share of the loot?"

Lao walked forward and put his suitcase on the ground before opening it to reveal a significant amount of cash. "3 million yen," he said.

"What the hell, it was supposed to be 5 million."

"Your gambling debts as well as other debts accrued was paid off by the other two million."

"Tch," Ha-Li spat and threw the sheaf of papers at Lao who caught it deftly, "whatever. This meeting is over. It is unpleasant to be in the presence of a leech for too long." he said as he walked over to the door and punched in the combination to open it. It groaned but didn't budge. "Hey, leech. What did you do to the door?"

"Nothing. Perhaps you merely typed in the wrong password." Lao replied as his own men went out the other door only to find it unopenable as well. He fished the walkie talkie out of his pocket. "Lookouts report in." He waited for a while but didn't seem to hear anything.

"Start the truck. If this stupid door won't open well knock it down," said Ha-Li, still pissed from the meeting.

A second passed then the driver yelled, "It won't start."

Lao frowned then pulled out his gun. It was silenced so he could shoot the door open without drawing any undue attention and investigate this string of odd events. However when he lowered it to shoot at the door he noticed that a long needle was sticking in the barrel of his gun.

"All men check arms," he commanded.

They did so only to discover that each of their guns was in a similar state to their leaders, or as one so eloquently put it, "what the hell?! There's a *$#%ing metal pin through my gun."

"Oi leech, what the hell is this? Did you set us u..." He didn't finish his sentence before he collapsed.

Checking the site Anti-Skill said that they would be there in 3 minutes and to delay until then. Kuroko decided that, since she was still undetected, she could quite easily disable the vast majority of them, if not all of them. So she took aim and teleported a needle into the neck of Ha-Li and 3 of his buddies. Then she turned around and did the same thing to Lao and a few of his men.

One by one they dropped like flies. None of them having any clue what was going on as their friends were taken out the moment they presented a clear shot. Using her the filters of her glasses, which had very high resolution at close range and allowed her to make the difficult shots, she even managed to nail the driver of the trucks and the motorcyclists as they too panicked.

When Anti-Skill finally arrived each of the men was unconscious with a needle through their necks and Kuroko had just finished uploading the footage to two flash drives One to act as evidence and the other as a trophy. She turned off and packed up the webcam and microphone then put her sunglasses in her pocket then teleported down to meet the Anti-Skill agents.

"I apologize for the mess. They are uninjured but be sure to take the needle out carefully. This is the video evidence," she said presenting the flash drive "the physical evidence I have left untouched. Do you need me to stay here and help you from here or am I excused."

"your excused," said the Anti-Skill agent rubbing her temples with her fingers in exasperation. This kid was going to give her a migraine if she stayed here any longer. She would let her superiors deal with how to handle this.

Kuroko nodded and teleported away. She texted Uiharu saying that she had needed to stay behind and assist with the cleanup and that she could excuse herself for the day, then she turned off her cell phone. She went to Garu's office where Garu and Itora were waiting. "Ah, there you are," Itora said, "have you finished that task?"

"Yes, Lao and all his men are in custody and the bikes have been ceased as well as all the information on the riders. They will all soon face justice." Kuroko said, her voice surprisingly devoid of pride. Despite the resounding success she had just had she felt so empty, hollow. She didn't feel any of the usual pride associated with a job well done.

"You don't sound too happy about that... oh well, maybe you'll feel better once you receive your reward," Garu said with a smile as the armor was brought in. "You can change in the restrooms down the hall. The armor will automatically gather data in the field. All you need to do is bring it in every so often, perhaps once a week to allow us to gather that data."

Kuroko nodded and walked off to the bathroom. She stripped out of her clothes then put on the piece of chest armor. It fit comfortably enough, tight but very supple, feeling more like a second skin than clothes. She then put on her clothes over it. The other pieces would have to be put on as situation dictated, but the chest piece would stay on her most of the time, to prevent anything like the ambush by Ita from happening again.

She went back to the room to thank Garu and Itora.

"No problem," Itora said, "and I have something else to tell you. Apparently the Agiko have more surprises hidden away than just illegal gambling. They also have a certain device that they purchased recently with the ability to cancel out ESPer powers. I think Birdy knew someone who was interesting in those things, so if you see Birdy or her mystery friend would you mind telling them for me."

For only the third time that day Kuroko smiled. "Will do, thank you," she said then she teleported away with the rest of the armor to store it in her super-secret safe house.

* * *

[1]: I actually checked to see whether this was at all possible. They are in the same class but not in the same order, but the lily and the orchid orders are the closest in the order of similarity. I'm not sure about the rules of cross pollination so if someone more in the know could enlighten me as to whether it is possible to cross pollinate an orchid and a lily then would you please tell me.

* * *

Author's Note: When I was writing the beginning of this chapter I was a bit afraid the amount of seemingly useless detail may put off some of my readers. almost every single piece of information I gave is significant later in my story but because it is presented one after the other in a big block I am slightly worried that people will think I am just being needlessly verbose. Now I am sure some of my readers will write a review in response to that saying that they like the detail I put in and that I shouldn't be worried about being too verbose. A lot of people think that detail and long flowing descriptions are the things that make a story so good.

In a sense I agree to this and I am not saying otherwise. But I also believe firmly in the Law of Conservation of Detail. If you spend half a page describing a hat, then that hat better be significant later on. Needless descriptions one after another sound like some old man rambling on about his childhood and it is this quality I was worried that people would see.


	27. Toaru Kurayami no Heishi

Toaru Kurayami no Heishi

A Certain Soldier of Darkness

* * *

After dropping the suit of armor into her safehouse, Kuroko headed back to her dorm. She would need a few more of those pills to be able to perform that heist tonight, and she could use something to quell her grumbling stomach as well.

When she arrived back Misaka looked at her from her seated position on her bed. She smiled at Kuroko saying, "Hey there. Nice job today. I was watching over Uiharu's shoulder."

"I only did my duty as a Judgment agent," she said, looking down. Her tone was it's usual blend of humble and haughty but even with her Onee-sama's praise she could not feel her normal pride for her accomplishment. It felt hollow.

Suddenly Kuroko felt arms wrap around her, pulling her towards her Onee-sama's warmth. "Your duty only goes so far though Kuroko. You've been working so hard recently. You're still a human you know. I can see those bags under your eyes, even if you try to hide them behind sunglasses." Misaka kissed Kuroko's forehead gently, "the case is over now, so I want you to get a good rest. And maybe we can go on a date Saturday. Sound good?"

For a second Kuroko was confused. Then happiness surged through her overriding her confusion. A smile spread across her face as she wrapped her arms around her Onee-sama, returning her hug and nuzzling close to her. "That sounds fantastic. Thank you Onee-sama. I love you so much."

"I love you too Kuroko," she said with no hesitation and just a hint of a blush. She affectionately stroked Kuroko's hair with a hand as the other held her delicately until her breathing slowed into a steady unconscious rhythm.

Misaka smiled, glad that she had worked everything out. She had thought Kuroko would be happy when she came home, thought she would go on and on about solving the case. Seeing her so... droopy, when she should be happy had been quite a shock.

Luckily Misaka knew just how to make her smile, a smile Misaka knew she deserved. Considering what Misaka had found out today. She had found out what Kuroko had been hiding, and now had a plan about what to do about it.

'But that can wait for tomorrow,' Misaka told herself as she settled back on the bed, careful not to wake up Kuroko. It was a little early to be going to bed but Kuroko needed the sleep and Misaka didn't mind. She turned off the light and began her planning.

* * *

_The pereskia is becoming more reliable it seems. The whole thing is still fragile but it seems that she is actually starting to care about Shiro's feelings._

Kuro knew how important the pereskia was to Shiro's delicate psyche and the other day she had shook it up quite a bit. _She is still far too thoughtless about what she does and Shiro is still far too forgiving. Things have been rocky and Shiro doesn't listen to me as much as usual. The pereskia is the key now, she is the one that can most easily manipulate Shiro's emotions, but she isn't considerate enough of them yet for that to be a good thing._

_Perhaps if I encouraged Shiro to spend time with her other friends then things would even out a bit more. Her relationships with Uiharu and Saten have no exploitable benefits and their connection with the pereskia would possibly render the exercise counterproductive. Jericho is a good reliable person for Kuroko's mental health(after all, most memories Kuroko considered good had been in either the last 3 months or the 2 years that she knew Jericho), but the relationship with Birdy is paying more dividends._

_However Birdy is hard to track down and, like Kuroko, had a job that kept her busy. Perhaps it would be best to continue to maintain the relationship through electronic means like Shiro has been doing for the past couple of days rather than physical means. Jericho is easy to find. So I should probably encourage Shiro to pay her a visit on her next free day._

Kuro looked over to Shiro, or rather her incarnation here in the dream world. She was away in another pool of conscious right now, having a nice dream. So this particular incarnation in her world of meditation and, more recently, nightmares, was nothing but dead weight, held up by chains in the shadow of the looming axe, like a prisoner awaiting execution. The fact that Shiro was effectively gone allowed Kuro some alone time where she was free to think without the distracting sensory input that she received through their shared conscious body, though some pain still leaked through.

_With the scapegoats' support Shiro was able to acquire protection for the future, assuming it is as reliable as Itora led us to believe. That itself is doubtful but the magnitude of exaggeration has yet to be seen._

Indeed, Shiro had been able to purchase many useful things recently. _Both for her and for me when it is necessary for me to step in. Though that shouldn't be too often once this is over. Surely Shiro can handle her conflicts for herself, without the help of a powerless person like me. Well... most of them anyway. Riko still heavily outclasses her in chess, without my help she would have lost far earlier._

This trail of consciousness led Kuro to think about something that she had never thought about before: herself. Or rather, it was the first time she had thought of herself in regards to something other than Shiro. For years she had only really existed when Shiro was distressed. When she wasn't then she would lapse into a sleeplike state until she was called back, then she would review the memory of the incident that was distressing Shiro and give her her opinion and support. But ever since the voice of honey and thorns ravaged their collective brain, the path back to Kuro's place of unawareness had been blocked by the thorny remnants that still lingered and the scar tissue it had left behind.

This was an odd experience for Kuro. Her whole purpose for existing up to that point had been as a guide for Shiro. She dealt with Shiro's problems and was rewarded with the blissful state of unconsciousness. It was what she did, it was her duty, her place in "life". She gazed up at a clock tower that pierced the horizon; the massive clock embedded in the pure white ivory tower was stuck at 12:01, one minute past midnight. The stopped clock and the memories it held were proof enough of the necessity of this weighty task.

But now this duty had been disrupted. She existed when she had no reason to exist. She was aware even when Shiro's happiness indicated that she had done her job and could rest again. She was like a soldier in peacetime, or a firefighter without fires. For the first time her existence was not entirely for her job, for the first time her existence was not exclusively for Shiro. It was such an odd feeling and one that was so very difficult to adjust to.

She looked at the hands of her own dream world incarnation. They were as black as night with dull edges that made her look like a moving shadow. It was an appropriate analogy for someone like her; someone without a true body to call her own, dependent upon another for continued existence.

_What am I? Who am I? _She didn't quite know yet. She would need to reevaluate at a later date when she had compiled more experience. As she decided that, she felt the dream world rattle and shake. This shaking was accompanied by increased sensory reception, suggesting that she was waking up.

* * *

Kuroko opened her eyes. The pain from her injuries had jarred her from her sleep. She was a bit surprised as she had not actually remembered falling asleep, just the nirvana that was her Onee-sama's embrace. Her Onee-sama still held her delicately with one hand resting in the small of her back while the other was at her own side. It was still dark outside; she turned to see the alarm clock flashing 12:01.

Kuroko frowned. It was her least favorite time of day. It held too many bad memories.

She extricated herself from her Onee-sama's grasp. As pleasant as it was to be held by her she had something that she still needed to do tonight and now that she had had a little rest it was the perfect time to do it.

She got the armor from her safe house, put it on, then teleported off towards her destination, the location of the 4th Horn of Jericho.

* * *

Specifically, her target was one of the few houses in academy city. Despite the fairly small population density, most people in the city were students who tended to live in dorms or apartments. Because of this the great majority of the city's housing, even that of non-students, was comprised of towering apartment complexes. The people that could afford housing tended to be the wealthy CEOs who owned the business in the city and thus had quite large houses which were all congregated in one particular area, known commonly as The Empire both for its ancient-Rome-style architecture and the social status of the people who lived there.

Despite the fact that it was the wealthiest neighborhood in the city, the crime rate was almost zero. Given the nigh non-existent police presence this fact had always bothered Kuroko until the other day when she learned that almost every inhabitant of The Empire was in some way connected to one of the crime families which were easily capable of warding the area against any non-organized rabble.

Still Kuroko was not worried.

Academy City was a city of students and of ESPers. There were over 350 thousand people in the city who had manifested their ESPer abilities and the city itself had adapted to reflect this. Because of the number of pyrokinetics, the fire safety codes were the strictest in the world. Because there were so many electromasters, the power grids could handle far more voltage than a regular city without going out. There were innumerable precautions that people took in order to counteract various powers and abilities. For a city where so many people had superpowers this was necessary.

However some abilities were too rare or difficult to counter and thus people did not bother. Teleportation was one such ability. Only 56 people had abilities which fell under the instantaneous movement subset of spatial manipulation, also known as teleporting. Of those 56 only 20 could teleport a mass over 10kg, and of those 20 only 6 could teleport themselves. It was such a rare ability that only one man, the warden to a reformatory school that specialized in detaining ESPers which could easily escape normal confinement, had ever bothered to try and counter it, via an advanced material which could stop the movement of an object as it traveled through the 11 dimensions and bring it back to the normal 3.

But even this would be useless against Kuroko, though this wasn't known to her. Her power, unique among all of Academy City, was to distort the dimensions and shift something's very existence to a different location, rather than simply moving it. It was an ability that could not be countered. There was no door nor wall nor vault nor lock which could keep Kuroko out. In theory she could break into any building she wanted. If she so had the conviction and didn't care about being seen she could probably rob every bank in Academy City in a single night, limited only by the weight she could teleport with.

Still Kuroko was cautious. This was a mission of stealth after all and the grounds were unfamiliar to her. Luckily she did have some advantages, courtesy of her generous suppliers. The computer which connected to the sunglasses had been uploaded with certain things before it had been given to her. It was the classic black market package that had the locations of Academy City's grid of security cameras and their coverage as well as a list of Judgment agents, criminals, and VIPs (with face recognition software allowing you to identify people in real time) tirelessly compiled by Simurgh Associations.

Most of Academy City was extensively monitored, the richer areas even more so, so it was far more cost efficient to use the surveillance system already in place rather than installing one's own. The Agiko were among those who preferred this method, enabling her, with the help of the map, to sneak close enough to the villa-esque house to scope it out. There was a sick feeling in her gut at the thought of what she was doing, which was technically burglary. But she pushed it down knowing that the object in question was already stolen and then purchased illegally by someone who had committed numerous other crimes. So it balanced out in the end… right?

She surveyed the house through the glasses' various filters, trying to get as complete a picture as possible. The filter which revealed the most was the electric field sensor which revealed the power lines running to the various cameras and other electronic devices spread throughout the yard and house. For a second she knew what it was like to see through her Onee-sama's eyes and the experience was quite interesting, but she had other things to worry about.

Security was tight and locating holes in it was tricky for someone with as little training as Kuroko. Luckily her suits various functions made this much easier. Primarily its camouflage ability which allowed it to project a picture of whatever was behind it using the fiber optic network wired among the carbon nanotube mesh skin. It could even use the same trick at infrared frequencies meaning that infrared and T-ray light couldn't detect it either.

However this feature was not perfect and it took a fraction of a second to project, which would mean she'd be visible for a fraction of a second if she teleported. Moving with the camouflage feature was also buggy and not suggested for high-resolution cameras that could detect such things with ease.

So she manually set the color to umbra and the infrared setting to normal. This way she could blend in with the shadows perfectly, which is what the suit had been designed for anyway. Using this she teleported within range of the house and focused on her next target: an air duct.

* * *

She teleported inside the duct with little difficulty. The padding on the armor served to muffle the sound of the already quiet suit as she climbed along the duct, on the lookout for anything suspicious. Her breathing was muted by the self-contained helmet so she traveled along without a peep.

She felt ridiculous for doing such a cliché maneuver as climbing around the air ducts but she knew that it was the best way to remain undetected as she searched for the saferoom where the Horn of Jericho was located. She had gotten the schematics of this building off the internet and uploaded them to her HUD. But she somewhat doubted that the room would be labeled on it, she didn't even think that the room would exist on the blueprints. In fact that was what she was planning on to lead her to it.

Sound was as important to both surveillance and non-detection as sight was. So, in addition to having exceptionally visual manipulation capabilities, the suit also had a very good system for dealing with sound. One of these features was a form of sonar which Kuroko put to use. The metal lining of the ducts easily reflected the high frequency sound and gave a complete map of the duct for as long as it remained straight. She overlaid this map on top of the blueprints of the building and crawled forward until she got to a 4 way intersection. She pinged each of these offshoots and then continued on, following what seemed to be the best path.

The map slowly grew and after a while of this she finally located a duct which lead somewhere not on the blueprints. Kuroko followed this duct and arrived at a grate overlooking a hallway. There were no people and no cameras so she teleported out of the grate into a nearby shadow right next to the door.

She reached to open the door only to have it open up by itself as two people dressed completely in midnight bluish grey outfits. They clutched the suitcase in one hand as they ran with inhuman speed down the corridor. Kuroko barely had time to react before they were gone. She looked in the room to check and saw that the Horn of Jericho was gone from what was it's obvious place in the center of the room while all the other riches of the room had been left untouched.

* * *

She stood there for a minute wondering what the hell had happened before realizing that this wasn't the place for that. She teleported back into the duct then from there to outside.

She pondered what she had just seen and reached the conclusion that she had had an odd hallucination. After all, "there is no way that I just witnessed two ninjas running out of that room with the suitcase."

_Given that we share sensory information we would probably share hallucinations so I cannot say that you are incorrect. But I would like you to admit the possibility that it actually happened._

"No. there is no way that Ninjas exist. I refuse to believe such a preposterous idea. They are nothing but a myth. You are the logical one, why in the world are you even suggesting that that was anything other than a hallucination."

_Your roommate shoots lightning out of her fingers and once defeated a big, blue, fetus-shaped blob of concentrated AIM-fields. I am willing to believe in Ninjas, I am willing to believe in magic, I am willing to believe in anything but luck and God at this point. With the exception of those two things, logic dictates that you should believe in whatever has evidence behind it, even if it is something like magic. Besides, if it was nothing more than a hallucination then why is the tracker you teleported into the suitcase before they disappeared around the corner moving away from the mansion. Whether or not they are ninjas, something has taken the suitcase and is bringing it to another location._

"Yeah, whatever, I'll follow it…"she relented, not willing to lose an argument with Kuro again like she always did.

_Good. Let's stay behind them, follow them to wherever they are going, and then retrieve it._

Kuroko nodded as she followed Kuro's orders. The blip moved quickly, as quickly as a car. Though the path it followed seemed to cut through buildings, suggesting that a car wasn't involved at all.

* * *

They went quite a distance, out of district seven and into the border between districts two and ten, before stopping at a small bungalow. Kuroko scanned the building once she got there only to reveal that there were no life forms inside. She took this to mean that they had dropped it off here and left.

Since this was the case she teleported inside the building where she saw the suitcase lying on a table in the middle of a shadowy room. She walked up to it, but when she had gotten only half way there she felt a sharp metal blade press against her throat, the one weak point where the armor didn't protect.

"I have to say that I wasn't expecting this," a voice said from the shadows before walking out into one of the few beams of moonlight that penetrated the high windows of the bungalow. His hood was off revealing his face. He was a tall teenager with black hair and a band wrapped around his forehead. In the middle of the band was a piece of metal with an emblem inscribed on it. "Looks like someone was tailing us after all. I told you Saeji, my instincts are never wrong. Feel free to kill her now."

Saeji was just about to comply when suddenly his sword disappeared from his hand. The element of surprise was only effective if used immediately after all and now that Kuroko could respond she wouldn't be beaten so easily. She teleported the offending piece of metal into the floor, then she leaned back to touch her grappler and teleported him just in front of his sword. The sword caught on his clothes, trapping him.

"I suggest you give me the suitcase peacefully," she said. Her suit automatically disguised her voice, shifting it several octaves down and blurring any audial distinctions that could be used to identify her. She noted that she would need to speak carefully to avoid her usual desu no~ verbal tic, but at the moment that didn't matter.

"No. I need it for my own purposes and I went through quite extensive lengths to get it," he said pulling his hood down and disappearing into the shadows, Invisible even to her infrared sensors. "This will make things so much easier. I don't care what the old man says, with this no ESPer can hope to stop me. "Kuroko suddenly felt a sting in her neck, like a mosquito bite. She checked to see a small dart, probably poisoned, lodged in her neck.

"Not even you can stop me." The voice said, much closer to her and on her right. She turned to try and attack but he was quicker and she felt something hard come into contact with her back as he attacked her vulnerable rear.

She spun to attack but her kick hit nothing but air. A second later she was attacked from the side. She didn't bother attacking this time but instead adopted a defensive posture as she analyzed the room, looking for anything. The beams of light which would reveal him were too small to rely on for defense.

He attacked again. The moment Kuroko felt the attack land she moved her body with it, softening the blow. If she continued to do this she would get quicker and quicker and she could probably eventually get an attack on him. But the poison worried her. She didn't know how fast acting it was and if she took a strategy like that then it might be too late by the time she could enact it.

But there was nothing to indicate his presence. Even with the most advanced technology available she couldn't detect him. Freaking ninjas…

That was when a thought struck her. She remembered the previous night when she had had to fight Jango in the middle of his smoke cloud.

She grinned and got out one of the smoke grenades she had found amongst his stuff. The Horn that he had had had been heavier because it had held various types of grenades and other tools that he used to disable ESPers for his bounty hunting business. A couple of them were the same type of smoke grenade that he had used. She pulled the pin dropped this on the ground and soon it detonated, flooding the room with smoke.

The infrared capabilities showed the smoke clearly, but more importantly they showed lack of smoke clearly. As he attacked she looked in the direction of his attack and saw a small outline where the smoke did not penetrate. Now she could fight him.

Still it was a losing battle. He was a far more skilled martial artist than she was and he was still winning. Even worse the smoke was beginning to clear, soon she wouldn't be able to see him at all again. She needed a plan.

_Don't forget you are a teleporter..._

…

She attacked again, but this time when he blocked she used the contact and teleported him right into the path of her other fist. Then she teleported him again and kicked him. She continued juggling him with her teleportations until she was sure he was unconscious.

When he finally hit the ground she was exhausted from the ordeal. She took several weary steps to the table with the capacity down and grabbed hold of it only to fall unconscious just as she was about to leave.

* * *

She awoke several minutes later in a small room quite different from the one she had fallen asleep in. It didn't have any windows. And the walls were stone instead of plaster. Pillars formed two lines down the long room; hanging from each pillar was a banner with the same emblem as the teenage ninja's headband. At one end of the room was a small altar and at the other end was a door. She sat in the middle of the room at a table across from an elderly man with long white hair and a long white beard in a very old fashioned robe.

"You are awake I see," he said sipping some tea, "A bit of a surprise I must say. That etherplant dart was a lethal dose for someone twice your mass.

The etherplant was a plant created by Academy City's genetic engineers which contained a fairly potent poison. In even small doses it could easily kill a man, but in very small, very controlled doses it functioned as a powerful, non-addictive pain medication. Kuroko, who already had a high metabolism for drugs and took higher doses for mass than normal, had been taking this medicine for the past week or so to help control the pain from her wounds from the fight with Ita. During this time she had built up quite a resistance to it. This is what had saved her from the poison tonight.

But Kuroko's head was far too foggy to figure this out so her only reply was, "huh?"

The man gestured to the teacup in front of Kuroko, "drink."

Kuroko realized that she was parched so she took his offer and drank deeply. After a short while she recovered enough to think clearly.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I am Yami Koga, grand-elder of the Koga clan."

Kuroko nodded, "right… right… ninjas… I forgot."

"Unfortunately you didn't and that is a slight problem for us. You see we are necessarily a stealthy organization, existing in the shadows. Due to the actions of one of our former members, you, an outsider, have gained knowledge of our existence and defeated one of our own. This leaves us with a simple choice in accordance with the code. Either the outsider who gains knowledge must join our clan or die."

Kuroko looked at him then shrugged, the medication taking the edge off and making her exceptionally calm. "Hey, I'm convinced this is a hallucination anyway; so you know what? I'll join you. "

"They usually take that route, though often it takes slightly more persuasion," the old man said. In truth he could have killed her as soon as he had found her in the bungalow and no one would have batted an eye. But it was against his code of honour to take the life of one who he was not meant to kill. Plus she had helped him against those two young rebels that had disobeyed his direct orders and risked exposing the clan to everyone.

So he had decided to take another option. He handed her a crest, much like the one that the other ninja had been wearing, in fact it was exactly the one he had been wearing. He had had his removed when he was thrown out of the clan. "That is the symbol of our clan, wear it proudly." The symbol was enchanted with a simple spell that would prevent the first person who put it on from talking about anything that had happened in the hour before it was put on. It was a traditional ninja technique.

Kuroko looked at it. "Huh… thanks," she said as she wrapped it around her shoulder experimentally, then took it off and put it away. "Well I'm going to get going now." She said, waving to the image of an old man that her deranged mind had conjured up as she stood up and left the building.

* * *

The room turned out to be a basement in a building that turned out to be a dojo. The Dojo's sign said that it was a school of ninjitsu, which made Kuroko chuckle. "They do like to hide in plain sight. You got to admire that kind of gall," she said appreciatively. Then she teleported away, back to her safehouse. She dropped off her armor and put on her uniform again. From there she went home. The pain medication took the edge off of her bullet wound as well as the bruises she had just received so her teleportation was unhindered by the pain as it had been before. Kuro was yapping in her ear, scolding her for not being careful with the suspicious old man. She didn't really listen though.

It was all a hallucination anyway. Well… more likely a dream… but still. It's not like it affected anything. And now that she was free from the pain that had been bugging her all night, it was nice to have a chance to relax and ease into her growing insanity.

Her mind had been falling apart ever since the incident with the Queen. She had always been mentally damaged but now it was getting worse and worse. The moment she saw the old ninja man she knew that she had gone completely off the deep end.

The thought terrified her and so she tried to drown that terror beneath a mask of carefreeness.

* * *

Soon she was back in her dorm room. She deposited the band in her pack then turned to the bed to see her Onee-sama still slumbering peacefully, if a bit restlessly. Kuroko smiled at her cute sleeping face. She carefully climbed into bed beside her and was immediately wrapped in Misaka's restless embrace. She felt as her Onee-sama calmed down, having located something warm to snuggle up to once again.

"At least I have you two to keep me sane," she whispered to Kuro and her Onee-sama. She leaned forward and kissed her Onee-sama lightly, then wrapped her arms around her.

Pain-free, warm, and comfortable in the embrace of the one she loved, Kuroko fell asleep.

* * *

Author's Note: Sorry this took so long (though it is bundled with 3 other chapters like I promised, so there's that ((so it's 4 chapters in 12 days which is 1 every 3 days which is actually pretty good considering that it's been 1 every 7 days for a while now))). I didn't get many reviews for my last chapter and so I got struck with a bit of writers block. You, my readers, are my muse and my motivation. I just need to know you're there.

The story of this chapter is a simple one. I found out there were ninjas in the world of TAMNI. The end.

It took a bit of shoehorning and it seems a bit rushed I'm afraid. But I already had a lot of exposition in this chapter and I didn't want to beleaguer it with more. They will come into play later and that is when I will go more in depth.

On a side note TAMNI= TeenAge Mutant Ninja Iguanas.


	28. Toaru Un no Renshō

Toaru Un no Renshō

A Certain Streak of Luck

* * *

"I'm fine Kuro," Kuroko insisted once again

_You're not fine. That shock was far harsher than that pereskia's usual. It was even worse than last night's, and to a far more sensitive location. You can't even stand up right now._

But as much as Kuroko tried to downplay the situation, Kuro was right here. Ever since her less than pleasant awakening her legs hadn't actually been able to support her own weight. She managed to make due with her ability, teleporting from her spot on the floor over to her closet and from there teleporting out of her pajamas and then changing into her clothes. After doing a few more things around the dorm she had sat up straight and teleported outside onto the roof and from there to a more secluded location. The pain that was flaring from her leg, her bullet wound, her chest, and her lower back was considerable, even more painful due to the fact that she had been on pain medication up to this point. It hindered her ability to teleport, making the process both slower and far more inaccurate than usual.

Still… "I am a teleporter; even if my legs were torn off I would still be able to move. Standing up is unnecessary. And you know that she was still asleep when she shocked me, I can't blame her for it any more than I can blame her for breathing," she reasoned, defending her Onee-sama. But, truth be told, she had been scared when she had first woken up. She thought she had done something wrong to raise her Onee-sama's ire to such a degree to warrant such a brutal treatment. When she saw that she was still asleep she wasn't sure whether to be relieved or even more worried.

Either way she didn't want to alarm her Onee-sama and make her feel guilty about something she had not meant to do, so she had left her a note explaining that she had something that she had forgotten that she had gone to get and some work that she needed to do. With that loose end tied up she decided to spend the morning out and about, glad that, after today, they did not have school until next Wednesday. And though, as she had said to Kuro, the ability to stand was unnecessary to her, she still decided to wait until the feeling came back to her legs to do anything further. In the meanwhile she watched the sun rise over the horizon, basking in the beauty of nature. The sky was heavy with clouds, beautifully tinged with the colors of dawn. She sat on the edge of the building, watching the red and orange sky as she flexed her leg muscles, trying to work out the numbness that coursed through them.

When she was again confident in her ability to move, she teleported over to a perch closer to the ground. Then she slowly slid off of it onto her feet onto the edge of the sidewalk. Her legs could easily support her and she smiled, happy that she could walk again. She took a step forward but when she lifted her foot to move her other leg buckled, unable to support her weight on its own. She found herself stumbling, she tried to catch herself but the railing she had teleported onto slipped out of her grasp and she fell into a puddle of rainwater from the storm two nights ago. She lay there for a second before teleporting back to her previous perch, now half drenched in muddy water.

_You overestimated your abilities. You should know better than to try walking so soon after such a severe shock to such a sensitive place._

Kuroko responded with some words that she felt were most appropriate for this situation.

_Hmmm… such language is unlike you, who holds the values that make up a lady so highly. Besides, since we share a body doing such an action would be as unpleasant for you as it would be for me._

This was followed by a few minutes of Kuroko thumping her head repeatedly against the nearest hard surface. "What a bloody brilliant week," she spat sarcastically, "First Birdy, bikers, Riko, a bounty hunter, three separate crime families, and, to top it all off, FREAKING NINJAS!" She reached into her bag and took out the crest that she had acquired yesterday, if only to prove that it really existed. She felt the fabric and metal in her hand but could not, would not believe it was there. Or at least she would not believe that she had gotten it from that old man last night.

It must have always been there and she just hadn't noticed. She must have bought it from a little novelty shop recently. She must have…

She gripped it tightly and tried to calm down. Reaching into her bag she pulled out a little hand towel and began wiping away the muddy water on her face and uniform, cursing the fact that it was her last clean one. Well… second to last anyway, but the last was for emergencies more dire than this. "And on top of all of that, because of this stupid quest and my Judgment work, I hardly got to spend any time at all with Onee-sama this week. Either she was late home or I was…"

_But you managed to acquire two of them. Considering that we have 4 so far and there are only 6 in total. It means it will be over pretty soon. After that you can spend as much time as you want with her._

"You're right I suppose," Kuroko sighed. Then she tried standing up again, this on a place with no puddles. She took a few hesitant steps and seemed alright. _You should rest for a little longer still._ As stubborn as Kuroko was she knew that Kuro was right here. So she sat back down and waited another 15 minutes or so until she could walk without risk of falling down again. Her gait was still a bit unsteady but she had expected as much.

After that she teleported back down onto the street. It was still early in the morning so there were not many people wandering around. There was still around an hour before school began so Kuroko decided to do some shopping, though not the shopping that one would expect from a girl her age.

She needed to pick up some pain medication and more of the wakefulness pills. Luckily Academy City never truly slept and most shops were fully automated, allowing them to be open 24/7[1]. So she put on her glasses, which she had already uploaded her personal map of the city (which included her secret spots ((except her ultra-secret spot which she had never put down and never would)) as well as teleportation paths and other additions she had made) onto, and searched for the nearest pharmacy. She walked there, trying to get the numbness out of her legs through exercise.

On the way she stopped to pick up some hot breakfast which she ate on the go. In her hurry she ended up burning her tongue and dropping the food almost immediately, but she caught it before it hit the ground with her ninja-like reflexes. "Freaking ninjas," she muttered again as this thought crossed her mind.

After far too long a walk she reached the pharmacy with just enough time to get what she needed and teleport to school. She got some over the counter pain pills as well as the wakefulness pills and several nutritional supplements that allowed her to keep her body fit and healthy despite her diet which had recently been quite lacking.

She took her pills with a drink of water from a nearby fountain then headed off to school, talking with Kuro on the way. "This has not been the best of mornings. I'd call it bad luck, but luck and God are two things I will never believe in."

_So you will go to your default opinion that the Universe is punishing you, correct? Or will you perhaps admit that it is you who is punishing yourself?_

"What is with you this morning Kuro? You aren't acting like yourself…" Kuroko said, surprised by the blunt words that were coming from Kuro's "mouth".

_I apologize. Things have been difficult recently and this transition to being awake all the time is quite hard to adapt to. It hasn't been like this since elementary school. 'And back then your problems were easier to deal with'_ Kuro did not express that last part, though it was the core of the problem. She had already said something that she should not have said.

"At least it means I won't ever be alone…" Kuroko said to which Kuro simply replied, _No you won't. Never again._

* * *

After that she arrived at school with plenty of time to get to class. After that the day proceeded normally. The test they took yesterday was handed back. Kuroko got an F and a note at the top that said to see the teacher during lunch.

She did so and received a slightly concerned interrogation. She had always been at the top of the class and such a dive in performance was unexpected.

"Don't think I don't notice how the other students have been treating you. Is that what has been affecting you? I know I've offered before but are you sure that you don't want me to do something about it?" She said.

"I'm sure. I can handle it on my own, but thank you for the offer. That actually has nothing to do with this though. It's just that I've had a few problems getting to sleep recently, nothing that won't pass in time. I'm sure I'll be better by the time the break is over." Kuroko replied.

"All right. If you say so. But if this continues then I will take measures to fix the problem myself, understand?"

Kuroko nodded, "hai."

* * *

After that she was excused and she teleported down to the cafeteria to spend the rest of lunch with her Onee-sama, who was a little surprised to see her. "Hey there Kuroko, I half expected you not to show up again. What's up?"

"Sorry Onee-sama, I was talking with the teacher," she said as she sat down.

"I see. Hey, what are you doing after school today?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. I have a detention. "

"A detention? For what?"

"Being out past curfew and insubordination. It was what I worked out with the dorm mistress. I have to clean the pool on my own after school. And then after that I have Judgment work. Things still need to be taken care of. I won't be home until 7-ish."

"7! For that much work? It took so much time to clean the pool last time, and that was with two people."

"Don't worry about it. I have a plan." Kuroko replied with a grin just as the lunch bell rang, signaling that they should return to class.

* * *

The rest of the day proceeded normally and soon school was over. Kuroko obediently reported to the pool which had been emptied, as usual, for the weekend. She changed into her gym uniform and waited for the dorm mistress to arrive. She did shortly afterwards.

"You know what you need to do. Clean the entire pool then cover it with the tarp. I am going to Cypress Park, I will be back to check your work in 4 hours so finish it before then or there will be consequences. Is that understood?"

Normally four hours for such a task would be impossible but as she had said before to her Onee-sama, she had a plan. "Hai," she said to the Dorm Mistress, bowing low in respect. Maintaining the bow until she had left. Then she straightened up and got to work. She went over to her athletic bag, in which she had smuggled a few toys. First were her sunglasses which she put on and switched to infrared scanning to warn her if there were any people nearby. After confirming that there were not with both infrared and T-ray, she pulled out her pair of tonfa.

Gripping its handle she lifted her fingers in code and pushed the button activating one of its utility functions. It released a piton and a carbon nanotube cord, which was very thin but very long and very strong. She tied one end to one of the diving blocks and then looped the other end around the opposite block. Then she put on a rolling clip, much like the ones on zip lines. Onto this she hoisted one of the buckets of cleaning solution that she had been given.

The next step was simple. She tilted the bucket just enough that a steady stream came out of it and then walked down the pool with it doing so, applying the cleaning solution evenly onto the walls and floor of the pool in a greatly reduced amount of time. She then teleported the entire mechanism onto the next block and repeated the pattern. She continued to do so until the cleaning solution had been evenly applied to the entire pool. Then she took down the mechanism, retracting the cord and putting the tonfa away.

This left only the rinsing, which would normally be the biggest consumer of time. However she had come prepared for this as well.

First things first, however, she would need to put the tarp over the pool. The tarp was too heavy to teleport so she attempted to do it by hand. She managed it but in the process tore open her bullet wound. The pain flared and her t-shirt became stained with the blood that soaked through the bandage. But she braved past such trivial sufferings and finished hauling the tarp over and securing it.

She checked once again for any people. Seeing that there were still none she began the next part of her plan. Digging around her bag she retrieved a large cylindrical device, about the size of two adult-sized fists. It had been one of the things that she had found in Jango's suitcase. It was a "grenade" with the function of storing liquids in high pressure then releasing them in a powerful directional burst. It was used either to incapacitate someone or to put out fires. It released the fluid stored inside (which could be filled and refilled with any type of liquid) in a funnel from one of two ends, or both ends at once. Because of Newton's second law it would need to be secured if done from only one direction but if done from both then it would balance out.

With the tarp over the pool she triggered the grenade, setting it to go off in both directions. She waited 2 seconds then teleported it into the pool. Half a second later she saw the tarp jump slightly at both ends. She did this again with the other one she had brought to the same effect, then she teleported down into the pool beneath the tarp. She turned on the glasses night vision filter and retrieved the two devices. She checked on the pool to see how clean it was. The high tech night vision was almost perfect, showing her the pool as clear as day. The high pressure water had easily cleaned off the sides and floor leaving it almost sparkling.

With a smile she teleported back up and refilled the grenades, repeating this once more to get the last of the uncleaned spaces. Then she retrieved it and activated the pools draining mechanism to drain away the water.

Having completed the 5 hour (or more) job in just over half an hour, Kuroko smiled and changed back into her uniform, washing the blood out of her gym uniform with the leftover cleaning solution. Then she put everything away and left.

* * *

She soon arrived at work. Uiharu wasn't there but Konori was. When Kuroko entered the office Konori turned and looked at her with a look eerily similar to a pissed off dorm mistress.

When Konori had returned yesterday from a dead lead she had been surprised to find the office empty and a message from Anti-Skill flashing on her desktop. She had been even more surprised once she had read its contents.

Kuroko had solved the case. The mysterious lead she had left to follow shortly before Konori had left to follow her own had apparently payed off. The leaders of the races and the gambling ring associated with it were arrested and the list of the racers and vehicles was captured, shutting down the entire operation in a single sting.

In addition the evidence gathered by Kuroko made their conviction assured.

Ever since Kuroko had joined Branch 177 their record had been immensely improved. She and Uiharu had helped solve case after case. It had been even better since their friends had begun helping out.

But as time went on Kuroko seemed to rely on her less and less. She always tried to do things on her own even if it meant disobeying orders or breaking rules. Still she would always talk to her friends and Konori about the case and ask for their help when necessary.

This time she hadn't done that at all. She hadn't told Konori anything about this lead nor anything that she was investigating. Ever since that incident with the "infighting" gang of thieves, she had seemed so distant from everyone. She turned her microphone off frequently when out on patrol and was always so quiet when she was at the office.

Now she would take even greater risks. She would charge in against over a dozen opponents. She would go to a warehouse full of criminals and attempt to spy on them. And the thing is… she always won.

This worried Konori. She saw Kuroko as a little sister and everytime she flung herself into the fray she couldn't help but be concerned for her. She knew that every victory would be proof to Kuroko that she didn't need help. It would feed her ego and she would take bigger and bigger risks. And one day Konori knew she would bite off more than she could chew and get herself hurt, really hurt. She was terrified of this and this fear quashed any pride that she had in Kuroko's accomplishment.

Of course Kuroko knew none of this. All she heard were the angry rantings of a boss who was yelling at her for doing a good job.

Konori knew nothing . She didn't know how carefully Kuroko had planned that sting nor how much work she had had to put in to even get to a place where it was a vague possibility. All that Konori knew were the results, and those results were as impressive as could be. Yet she was still being yelled at?

She heard the yelling but did not listen. Bitterness welled inside her with every word until finally she had had enough and left, teleporting out without a word.

* * *

She teleported away without so much as a glance back. She stopped after a while, finding herself in a little park. It was familiar, she had come here often with Onee-sama, Uiharu, and Saten.

'Even if Konori doesn't care I still have an Onee-sama who loves me,' she thought as she got out her phone, still shaking slightly from anger.

"Hey Onee-sama," she texted, "I got done a bit early, want to hang out?" She smiled knowing that her Onee-sama wouldn't let her down. She was a bit thirsty so, as she waited for a reply, she walked over to the vending machine that her Onee-sama was always kicking.

She put in the note just as the reply came. She pushed the button as she read the message. "I'm busy until seven. You have other friends, why don't you go spend some time with that Jericho girl." It read, bitterness apparent in the last sentence.

She gazed at her phone screen for a minute or two, still not sure she read it correctly. She looked up to see that the vending machine had not as of yet dispensed with her beverage.

Fifteen seconds later she walked away from Vending Machine#7116, leaving even the heartless, pitiless, merciless Kuro feeling sorry for it. Kuro literally felt the anger coursing through every vein in Kuroko's body, the anger and the sadness and the self-pity and self-loathing. She knew that nothing she could say could calm her down when she was like this and decided to simply sit back and wait for a while.

* * *

Suddenly, as Kuroko was walking down the street, the safety shutters of one of the banks along the main road slid down as an alarm began blaring. Kuroko turned to the site of the noise and stood for a second before reaching into her pocket for her green Judgment armband. "First bit of luck I've had all day," she said to herself as she put her armband and glasses on then teleported inside.

There were five people in the building. The teller stood behind a counter, holding his swollen cheek and looking terrified. There were three people in one corner, standing in a straight line with their hands behind them on their heads, looking as terrified as the teller. Around four feet from them in front of the counter stood a man with a coat who was yelling at the teller.

"I told you not to push that button, now I am going to give you five seconds to give me the money before I start hurting people."

Kuroko had heard enough. "I am Judgment, surrender immediately."

The man turned around, in his hand he had a machine pistol. Her scanning revealed no other weapons on him or the "hostages". "Drop the weapon and lay down on the floor," she ordered.

"Seems I gotta show you just how serious I am," he said quietly to himself, then to Kuroko he simply said, "No," and pointed the gun towards one of the hostages, a child whose eyes widened in fright for the half second they spent looking down the gun barrel before the man pulled the trigger.

For the next one and a half seconds the thunderous noise of gunshots filled the building as thirty shells, one by one, were ejected from the gun as their bullets found their marks: the chest of the little Judgment girl who had teleported in between the gun and the child. The shooter smiled when he saw this. He had meant to kill the child, he hadn't known that the girl was a teleporter. It seemed that today was his lucky day.

He kept firing until he heard the click of the firing mechanism. He grinned as he heard the tinkling of sixty pieces of hot metal hit the ground one after the other.

…60?

* * *

Each and every bullet had found it's mark, hitting Kuroko directly in the chest. The recoil had caused each one to hit progressively higher, climbing up and hitting her at every point between her stomach and breast. Each one ricocheting off her armor, each one hitting her with force akin to a powerful punch, each one falling harmlessly to the floor, severely warped by the impact.

The pain was immense but Kuroko didn't care about that right now. She had something to do. She grabbed the gun with her left hand and pulled it away as her right fist sped towards the man's neck. It hit his windpipe hard, not quite hard enough to damage it permanently but hard enough to cause him to let go of his gun and hunch forward clutching his throat. Kuroko tossed away the gun then stepped forward and hit him on the back of his neck, knocking him out.

Mindlessly she cuffed him as the hostages ran over and tried to ask if she was alright. She didn't hear them. When she was done she stood up and teleported away. She was in a trance like state right now, like she was in denial of the pain and the rest of the world. The adrenaline rushing through her system holding the pain off for now.

She made her way to her safe house, changing out of her uniform, now shredded to pieces by the bullets, into the backup she kept here. Looking presentable again, she then teleported to her dorm, into the bathroom.

Only then did Kuroko begin to feel the pain. She hunched over the toilet and retched into it, emptying the contents of her stomach once… twice.

She felt like crying. She was angry, she was in pain, the day had been nothing but a series of more and more miserable events, and nobody even cared about her except a little voice in her head who didn't even have the emotions necessary to truly care.

She didn't cry though. It wasn't time yet.

When she found she could stand, she did so. She straightened herself up. She couldn't sit in the bathroom hiding for the rest of the day. It wasn't time yet.

Afterall… "I don't think this day can possibly get any worse…" Kuroko sighed as she opened the bathroom door and went into the main room. She turned towards her bed and the rest of the dorm only to see…

* * *

[1]: There isn't much evidence to this in the manga/show/light novels themselves but I don't see how it cannot be true. 80% of the population is comprised of Students. The power curriculum program has been running for 20 years so even assuming that some of the first ESPers which have all grown up are counted among that 80%, it still leaves a minority percentage of people capable of working. Thus I propose that, like the cleaning robots, many manual labor positions have been similarly replaced. Since automated shopping is already a reality in our world and Academy City is 30 years ahead I wouldn't be surprised if this was true.

* * *

Author's note: Way to tempt fate Kuroko, can't wait to see how that turns out... Bwahahaha.

Anyway, I would like to talk for a bit about the concept of luck. In the show Touma is shown to be a very unlucky person with random misfortunes happening to him frequently. However it is my belief that most misfortunes are self-inflicted, or inflicted by the malice/idiocy/clumsiness of another person. That was what I was aiming for in this chapter. Rather than have a series of unlucky events, I was trying to go for events which seemed unlucky but could still be traced back to Kuroko's actions and frustration. Having an unlucky hero is a cheap way to garner sympathy or, when played for laughs, an easy method of comedy. Seeing someone's day spiral from bad to worse as a result, if only as an indirect result, of their own actions is far more realistic and relatable.


	29. Toaru Igi no Shitsumon

Toaru Igi no Shitsumon

A Certain Question of Significance

* * *

Afterall… "I don't think this day can possibly get any worse…" Kuroko sighed as she opened the bathroom door and went into the main room. She turned towards her bed and the rest of the dorm only to see…

Her Onee-sama, Saten, and Uiharu all in the kitchen, bustling about doing various things: Uiharu was standing over the stove, cooking something, Saten seemed to be putting up various colored streamers and other festive decorations, and Misaka was holding a bowl, stirring its contents with an electronic mixer that was turned on to a setting higher than necessary, resulting in several drops of the mixture flying out and coloring her face with chocolate splotches. However the noise of the bathroom door opening and closing got their attention and they all stopped what they were doing and turned their gazes to Kuroko. They looked surprised and slightly panicked when they saw her. They exchanged glances amongst themselves then all looked at Kuroko again.

"Surprise," they all said in unison, "Happy Birthday Kuroko."

* * *

This whole thing had begun two days ago, on Wednesday after Uiharu and Kuroko had finished their work at Judgment. Kuroko had gone off to do some business and Misaka knew she would need to be going soon as well, but until then her, Uiharu, and Saten were hanging out in a random store, reading magazines. Uiharu had insisted on coming to buy one of her gamer magazines that she was so fond of, which of course she needed to read right away. Rather than listening to her gush endlessly about how many gigabytes of RAM this modem had, or how great the graphics were to this game, or how she had been meaning to optimize her CPU, the others had gotten their own magazines and were reading them as well.

Misaka had picked her usual manga compilation off the shelf, noting that there were far fewer there than usual. She paid for it at the counter and began leafing through it. However she realized as she was reading that the stories were not the usual ones featured in this compilation. Misaka guessed that they were doing one of their events where they would feature lesser known or even amateur mangaka's work to test out their popularity and boost sales. So she leafed through and checked out some of them. 'This one seems interesting… good action… that girl is really kicking ass…wait, what are they… are those two girls…' Misaka blushed and quickly flipped to another page only to face more of what had caused her the embarrassment in the first place. Misaka had bought the manga without looking at the cover first, if she had she would have seen that the publication had been having a special "Shoujo Ai" event in a (successful) attempt to boost profits.

Misaka's blushed deepened with every flip of the page as she slowly leafed her way through the magazine, reading every word and looking at every picture in an attempt to see if all of the stories had two girls kissing in them, of course she wouldn't be reading it for any other reason… she just liked the action scenes…

"Hey Misaka," Saten said suddenly, causing her to jump and press the magazine close to her chest. Luckily Saten was focused on her own magazine, the one where she normally read about all the rumors, urban legends, etc… of academy city, and didn't see this reaction, or the deep, suspicious blush on Misaka's face. "You're a Cancer[1] right?"

"Uh… yeah," Misaka said, trying to recover from her near heart attack.

"Listen to your horoscope," Saten said with a devilish grin, "'your love life this month will experience many ups and down, but with persistence and care you will make it through. Remember that keeping secrets is dangerous and, if revealed at the wrong time, may prove disastrous to your relationship. Keep in mind that sometimes it is better to simply forgive and forget.'"

Despite her belief that horoscopes were ridiculous, that particular one hit uncomfortably close to home. And she did not know how to respond. She felt Saten's gaze on her but couldn't determine what exactly was behind it. Was it mischievousness? Was it disappointment? She nonchalantly turned away to avoid those eyes.

Looking back at the magazine Saten continued, "oh and here's mine: 'Aquarius: This month will be full of surprises. One surprise will often lead to another. Remember to seize opportunities presented to you without hesitation. Sharing is important, whether fortune, feelings, or fun. The route to happiness this month is sharing.' Hey Uiharu, you want to hear yours?" she asked the girl sitting next to her.

Uiharu gave up trying to read for now, knowing that trying to ignore Saten was an impossible feat. "Sure, I'm a…"

"Sagittarius, I know," Saten interrupted and then began reading the horoscope, "'Things are not always as they seem. Remember to always be vigilant. A friend's bold action may reveal something that you have kept hidden.' Hmm… A friend's bold action…" Saten tapped her chin thoughtfully, then, suddenly, flipped Uiharu's skirt, "something you have kept hidden." She said as she peeked at her friend's now revealed panties, "White and yellow striped."

Uiharu blushed and pushed her skirt bag down, holding it tight to herself as her eyes darted around looking if anyone had seen that. It didn't seem that anyone was around, but it was still embarrassing, "Saten-san," she fumed, only for her to respond with her usual apology. She wished that Saten would simply learn that she did not appreciate her skirt being flipped like that.

Saten just smiled her usual smile and returned her gaze to her magazine, "now what does Kuroko's say… let's see…" She paused for a second then turned to her two friends, "what sign is Kuroko anyway?"

They both opened their mouth to answer but nothing came out. Their faces suddenly adopted a slight look of confusion, so Saten asked, "well when is her birthday?"

Again there was only silence. Misaka looked to Uiharu for and answer and Uiharu looked to Misaka. "You're her roommate, don't you know?" Uiharu said.

To which Misaka replied, "you're her colleague, you've known her for longer, shouldn't you know?"

"She's never mentioned it," they said in unison.

"It's a mystery!" Saten declared happily, not having had a good mystery to solve since the poltergeist incident and excited that a new one had popped up, even if it was something minor like this, "let's get to the bottom of this."

"Or we could, you know, ask her," Misaka suggested, despite the inherent complexity of such a controversial plan.

"No," Saten refused, "That's boring. Besides if she has told us and we simply forgot then that might hurt her feelings."

She had a point with that last part. "Fine, we can do it your way, but can we do it tomorrow? I have to get going," Misaka said, noticing the time. She stood up and began walking towards the exit when Saten called out.

"Wait, you forgot your magazine," she said holding it out to her. With a slight blush Misaka accepted with muttered thanks and turned around again. Before she could take another step though Saten spoke again, "Shoujo Ai edition eh? I should probably get myself a copy too." Following that, Misaka left the store, walking a bit more quickly than normal.

Saten went to the manga section and picked up a copy. She looked through the table of contents to see that there was a new chapter to one of her favorites being featured. she smiled as she settled in beside Uiharu, using her as a pillow as she began reading.

"Ooo, a new co-op mode," Uiharu remarked as she read the article about one of her favorite game's newest update. She couldn't wait to get home and install it so she could get to pwning some n00bs with her unparalleled sniping skills. Then she felt the pressure of Saten's head resting on her. The sensation was slightly uncomfortable but not unwelcome, and Uiharu smiled. 'But gaming can wait,' she decided, and went back to reading and spending time with her friend.

* * *

Their investigation into the mystery of Kuroko's birthday continued the next day at the judgment office, after Kuroko had gone to follow her "lead" on the case they were working. Saten and Misaka had decided that the person who would probably know best would be Konori, so they asked her as she sat at her desk, getting ready to go to pursue a different lead on the same case.

"Hey Konori-senpai," Saten said, "Do you know when Kuroko's birthday is?"

She paused for a second in her preparations, "no, I don't. Why do you ask?"

"It came up yesterday in conversation and none of us knew the answer. We thought you'd know, seeing how you've known her longer than any of us," Misaka answered.

"I'm sorry to say I don't," Konori responded zipping up her jacket, "Why don't you look it up." Having said that she grabbed her motorcycle helmet and left the building.

Since she hadn't known either, Misaka to follow her advice and look it up on her computer. After a bit of looking she found Kuroko's file on the archive. She opened it up and checked the birthdate. "What? It says that her birthday is tomorrow," Misaka said.

The other two were as surprised to hear this as she was. "Really? I wonder why she didn't tell us." Uiharu said

"She might have told us, I can't remember though…" Misaka replied, "So what should we do?"

"We could throw her a surprise party," Uiharu suggested

"That's perfect!" Saten exclaimed, "we'll go shopping right now while she's at work."

"But I still have to work too. And when we're done working, which we will be soon I might add, we're all going to hang out together, like usu-," Uiharu began.

Her words were cut short by a message from Kuroko telling her to go to a website and patch the video feed on it through to Anti-Skill. She did so and the girls gathered around to watch the subsequent crime drama that unfolded on the camera.

After that the message came that Kuroko would help Anti-Skill clean up and couldn't hang out with them, but said that Uiharu could go now and she would take care of the rest. Uiharu felt slightly bad for accepting and leaving Kuroko to do all the work all by herself, but she knew that now they could go and shop for her party.

So they had each gone shopping for a gift and for supplies for the party. Then, after school the next day, they had all come over here to get it ready. She had panicked a little when Kuroko had messaged her but she had managed to play it off without sounding suspicious.

Of course they hadn't been expecting her back so soon nor to come out of the bathroom like she had rather than the front door, but they tried to go along with it anyway.

"Surprise," they all said in unison, "Happy Birthday Kuroko."

* * *

Kuroko didn't hear what they said, too confused by the strange decorations of the room. Kuroko felt a little bit woozy but surely it wasn't been enough to cause her additional hallucinations on top of the ninjas. But what other explanation was there for her friends to be decorating the place in streamers and balloons. She thought of pinching herself but decided there was a much better test for seeing if she was dreaming.

Without saying a word in response Kuroko began walking towards the kitchen and Misaka. Misaka was a bit concerned. Kuroko seemed a little…. Out of it at the moment. 'She doesn't look too good, like something just- okay she's getting a little too close for-what is she…- Error: 0E:016F:BFF9B3D4' Her mind shut down and froze up like a blue-screened computer.

Kuroko walked over to Misaka, leaned up, and licked a dab of cake batter right off her cheek. 'too tasty to be a hallucination,' she reasoned as she lapped another dab off her now seemingly paralyzed Onee-sama. "What was that you were saying? And what's with the balloons," she asked as she diligently cleaned her Onee-sama's fair face of the messy cake batter.

For a few seconds Misaka couldn't respond with anything more complex than the twitch of an eye, so unexpected and frankly weird was Kuroko's action. When she regained control of her faculties she punched Kuroko right in the chest in a slightly panicked and extremely embarassed attempt to get her to back off. "What the hell are you doing?" She demanded as she swung. It knocked Kuroko back a bit but didn't seem to faze her much. However her chest seemed to be tougher than usual and the blow had actually hurt Misaka's wrist.

"Cleaning you off," she said with an innocent smile, too relaxed by the endorphins flowing through her system to see anything particularly wrong with her actions, not that she would normally see such a thing as wrong. Before Misaka could respond she decided to repeat her question, "what's with the balloons?"

Saten and Uiharu looked at her strangely, as if she had just asked what color the sky was or something similar. "It's your birthday," Uiharu said.

Kuroko cocked her head and looked at her, "it is?"

The other girls were slightly taken aback by this, "of course… don't you know your own birthday?" Saten said.

"Not really," Kuroko replied casually, "it's not reall-" Suddenly the ball dropped and Kuroko realized what the balloons were for. "Wait… is this… a birthday party… for me?"

The look of total confusion on Kuroko's face was almost… pitiful. There was a short silence, then Misaka spoke up, trying to confirm their suspicions, "Yes it's a birthday party… or it will be when we're done preparing. Haven't you had them before?"

Kuroko shook her head, "no, I haven't."

There followed a short, awkward silence as Misaka, Saten, and Uiharu exchanged glances. They weren't expecting this at all and they couldn't help but feel sorry for Kuroko. "Well we still have to get it ready, you came home earlier than we expected," Misaka finally explained, trying to break the awkward silence, "do what you want until then."

Kuroko smiled in response. "Will do," she said then disappeared. Misaka barely had time to wonder where she had gone off to when she felt hot breath on her cheek, followed by a soft pair of lips and a spot of wetness as Kuroko's tongue lapped up another spot of batter.

Knowing better than to punch again, Misaka instead raised her hand to Kuroko's chest and unleashed a weak, but still significant, bolt of lightning into her. "Except that," she said as she did so. However it seemed to have even less effect than the punch had. Kuroko didn't even recoil from the zap, though she did get the message and teleported to the table with a grin.

Saten tried hard to contain a giggle throughout the whole display. she went over to the table, taking a break from decorating, and sat with Kuroko, 'you might want to go easy on the teasing don't you think? Wouldn't want you getting electrocuted to death on your birthday."

"Eh, I've had worse."

"Oh," Saten said, her response to that particular statement interrupted by her sudden realization, "I almost forgot." She reached into her bag and pulled out the magazine she had bought from the store a couple days ago that had begun this whole thing. "Let's see… ah, here we are… Ha, should've guessed that's what you were, it fits you well…'Leo: Your dreams will come true. But remember that there are two sides to everything: with dreams may also come nightmares. Learn what to hide and what to reveal, and make sure you keep a level head in times to come."

Hearing this, Kuroko burst out into laughter. It was so… It was so… "That's perfect. I don't believe in all that astrology stuff but that… I can work with that. Dreams coming true..." Then came a glance towards the kitchen and a grin that Saten could easily guess the meaning of. For the second time that day Saten felt pity for the girl who was so in love with Misaka without even knowing the truth, without knowing that Misaka was already taken. She thought back to Misaka's horoscope. How it warned about the dangers of secrets revealed at the wrong time, and wondered if it had something to do with this.

"Don't you have your own work to be doing Saten?" Misaka said pointedly, keeping her head low to hide her blush as she put the cake pan in the oven and set the timer. Then she began to help Saten get the decorations up before dinner was ready.

As they were doing that Kuroko went over to the far end of the room, sitting down on Misaka's bed, still watching them but now having some distance between them and her. This allowed her to talk. "It's weird isn't it…?"

_Not overly. You've seen parties before, you've attended Jericho's birthday party, you were the one to throw it in fact._

"But I've never had one thrown for me … I never even knew that today was my birthday," she grinned, "kind of puts today's events in a different light eh? Getting shot on my birthday…"

_If it isn't special for you then it shouldn't matter that you got shot on it. Besides, if you look at it a different way, you saved several peoples' lives on your birthday._

"Thanks… you always know just what to say."

_I have experience. And that armor truly is amazing isn't it? 30 bullets point blank and not a single one pierced it. Plus it even dispersed the pereskia's electric shock. _Hearing this Kuroko remembered that she was still wearing it and quickly teleported it back to its hiding spot in her closet.

"Are you talking to someone Kuroko?" Asked Saten, her voice ridiculously high pitched. She had been having a bit too much fun with the helium.

"Just myself," she replied. It was technically true after all.

"Good conversation?" She asked.

"Yeah, quite good. Hey, Saten, whose idea was this anyway?"

"Well we all had a part in it. I was, of course, the catalyst. None of it would have happened without me… but it was Uiharu's idea to throw you a surprise party. And Misaka was the one who planned it all out."

"I see," Kuroko said and smiled, turning away from the kitchen slightly. Saten was focused on her own task so wasn't paying attention, but Misaka was, and she saw the sadness in that smile. Putting down her current task she walked over and sat next to her on the bed. She put her hand on Kuroko's shoulder.

"Maybe it's a good thing that you haven't had a birthday party before," she began, thinking that was the issue here, though she didn't quite see where she was going with this. In fact, looking it over that was quite stupid.

Kuroko raised an eyebrow as if to ask "Why?" so Misaka smiled and decided to just wing it, "because it means that no matter how badly this goes it will still be the best party ever? No no, that's stupid… " she said seeing Kuroko's growing look of amusement. The other two had similar looks as they eavesdropped on the conversation. Still Misaka was trying and she continued despite her growing blush, "how about… because it means that we get to be together for your first one?"

Kuroko wrapped her arms tightly around Misaka. But when she did the pain from the injuries she had sustained that day flared up, so she loosened her grip a bit to ease the pressure and the pain. "You're absolutely right Onee-sama," she said, though it was partially out of mercy. She was making a complete fool of herself, though that in itself was kind of cute, "Thank you so much for setting this up… all of you.I am truly glad we can be together for this," then she whispered to Misaka, "together in more ways than one eh?"

Luckily Misaka was saved from having to answer by the ding of the oven, telling her that the cake was ready. After that she got it out and frosted it, then came dinner.

When that was done Misaka and Uiharu took away the dishes while Saten got everybody's presents and laid them out on the table. They all sat down and waited for Kuroko to open them. She reached for the smallest box. It was clumsily wrapped in a yellowish flower-print paper. It turned out to be from her lovely Onee-sama, which kind of explained the wrapping. Her Onee-sama was not a very skilled person when it came to… most things. Still it was a touching gesture, made all the more charming by the lack of skill.

Still it did present a problem as she had no idea how to open it. She did not want to do something unladylike, such as trying to tear the paper with her teeth, nor did she want to embarrass Misaka by trying too hard to open it. So she simply took the easy route and teleported the paper off of it and into the trash, earning a "nifty" from Saten. Underneath the paper was a box. It was long but not very wide, similar in appearance to the boxes that necklaces come in, though slightly larger than that. She opened it up to see two long, red, silk ribbons, much like her own.

She took them out, "thank you Onee-sama," she said with a smile. Misaka responded with a slight blush and a muttered "you're welcome." Kuroko took off the ribbons she was wearing and put these ones on instead, then turned from side to side to show them off, "how do I look?"

Saten and Uiharu couldn't see a difference at all but they nodded their heads and said, "great, they suit you," like good friends were supposed to do when asked that question. Misaka, on the other hand, blushed even deeper as she tried to avoid eye contact and said, "Just great…"

In her infinite mercy Kuroko did not tease her, instead she reached for her next gift. It was larger and rectangular. It was wrapped far more neatly. Checking the tag it read "From Uiharu to Shirai-San. Happy Birthday." She did the same trick with the wrapping paper and saw that it was a new camera, like she had been wanting. She thanked Uiharu and put it aside. Then she reached for the final present.

By process of elimination this one was from Saten. It was larger than the other two but thinner. She opened it curiously and gaped at its contents. "Saten…"

"you like it?" Saten asked, happy to see such a positive reaction to her gift. Shopping for a rich girl was hard but she had managed to find something that no amount of money could buy to give to her.

"I love it… how… when…"

"A few days ago. I got it enlarged and printed yesterday."

Curious Misaka took a look at the gift. It was a framed picture of her and Kuroko on a park bench. Both of them were asleep and Kuroko was resting her head on Misaka's lap. Misaka blushed then lowered her gaze at Saten. Her eyes narrowed in a glare as sparks began arcing from her hair to her face.

Saten leaned back, trying to put some distance between herself and the Level 5 that she seemed to have enraged. Still Misaka wouldn't hurt her… right? She quivered slightly in fear as Misaka's gaze became fiercer and fiercer. Until suddenly her eyes twitched as Kuroko's hand, unseen by the others, began massaging a small circle in her lower back.

"Thank you very much Saten but you really shouldn't have done that," she lectured, hypocritically and half-heartedly as she put the picture, face down, aside with the other gifts. Saten was glad to see that Misaka was calming down as well.

"Thank all of you for throwing me such a wonderful party," Kuroko continued, "but it's getting late. You should probably head home before curfew."

"yeah, we better, come on Uiharu," Saten said standing up.

"See you Monday Shirai-san," Uiharu said as she followed Saten out the door.

"Ha-hand," Misaka warned through gritted teeth after the two were gone and the door was closed.

Kuroko removed her hand obediently and walked towards the window.

"Is something wrong?" Misaka asked, a little surprised at how mellow she was acting.

"I'm just a little surprised is all. Surprised that people actually care." After all that had happened today she had started to doubt that very thing.

For a few seconds no words were spoken as Kuroko continued looking out the window at the shimmering night sky. Then she felt pressure on her shoulders as Misaka spun her around and gave her a short peck on the lips.

"Of course we care. Of course I care. I love you," Misaka said as she bent down to kiss Kuroko once again. This time it lasted much longer as the two girls basked in each other's warmth. When they finally broke apart she smiled and said, "Happy Birthday Kuroko."

Kuroko practically melted on the spot.

'Could this day get any better?' she thought to herself happily.

* * *

[1]: "It is fair to say that most Cancers are a bundle of contradictions. Compassionate and caring with friends, family and lovers, yet they can cut to the bone with their jealous remarks and ever-changing moods. Endearingly eccentric on one hand, and on the other, insecure about how others see them. Like their astrological symbol - the Crab - Cancers can appear hard and insensitive on the outside. However, for those of us who know and love one, we understand that deep below lies a softness and sensitivity that makes them so very special…" Yeah… this sounds like Misaka.

* * *

Author's note: Now here is the question: Does this chapter make last chapter better or worse? Does the fact that the day had a happy ending make up for the fact that I did all those horrible things to her on what turned out to be her birthday?

Anyway, here is what Misaka and co. were doing wednesday and thursday. This is the reason the past couple chapters have been focusing on Kuroko. Don't worry though Misaka fans, though the next couple chapters will be low on action (of a certain kind at least) they will be from Misaka's POV.

Also… horoscopes really are rubbish… don't listen to them.


	30. Bonus Chapter 1

Bonus Chapter #1

Okay, so this chapter is a bit different from the rest. It is the first, and depending on the reactions I get perhaps last, one of its kind. This chapter is focused on information, information that cannot be put in my story without sounding out of place. This will be where I go into more scientific information regarding the various things in my story (meaning some of it may be difficult to understand), as well as where I expand on knowledge already given. The information is arranged and the subject is bolded so feel free to skip the things that don't interest you and reading only about the things that do.

So, without further ado, let's begin:

* * *

**Hayami:**

**ESPer Ability**- "Kaminarite; Thunder Hand" Level 3. Using Thunder hand she is able to fire balls of pure force from her hand that, upon contact with an object or by her command, explodes in a spherical blast. Her maximum force is 1000 psi, enough to turn a bone into fine power if it hit directly. However, due to being a spherical blast, it follows the classical intensity equation, meaning that the further out from the center you go, the force you experience is exponentially less and meaning that it does not have very wide area of effect. Because it isn't too calculation intensive she is able to fire them fairly rapidly (approximately 20 times a minute though that pace is exceptionally tiring) and her ability is affected little by pain, distraction, or the fact that she is an airhead.

Suffers from Obsessive-Compulsive and Anxiety disorders but has been taking medication since she was 9 years old which is proving to be very effective at controlling them.

**Jericho:**

**ESPer ability- **"Shatter Point" Level 4. Jericho's ESPer ability is the ability to vibrate her AIM field to produce sound. The sound cannot be complex, only one frequency can be produced at any time, but the range of sound she can produce (and also hear) is far higher than a humans, 2-100,000 Hz rather than 20-20,000 Hz. Her range for intensity is 0-190 decibels, though anything beyond 130 causes her pain if it is within normal human frequency range. She can also make the sound directional, focusing it on a single object. However it is not perfect and some of the noise is still released all around her.

Oh and she cannot use echolocation. Her brain can pick up the sound and the echoes but does not have the necessary functions to interpret the data as an environmental map.

Suffers from crippling shyness.

**(Poor) Biological Explanation of Kuro-** During Kuroko's power development, a combination of the project, the stress, and Kuroko's own genetics caused a mutation in her brain creating a second consciousness, as well as the ability to host both of them in the same brain, allowing two separate control points for neuroactivity within the brain.

During the Queen-incident, the intense duress and forced restructuring of her brain (which is basically what the Queen's power is), allowed Kuro to control parts of the brain she didn't have access to before, the parts which let her control movement. However, unlike with the thinky parts of the brain, only one neuro-control point can manipulate the body at one time. There were also further affects that both Kuro and Shiro are unaware of.

Kuro-mode is a "safe mode" for Kuroko's brain in which several different functions shut down and others are activated. Kuro feels less pain than Shiro and the muscles natural restrictors are mostly cut off, enabling her to exhibit unnatural (but not quite superhuman) strength and speed (sort of like Shizuo from Durarara, but less so because her muscles and bones haven't been strengthened by practice yet… so more like Shizuo as a kid). One of the other things that are shut down is the portion of the limbic system which produces the chemicals that enable you to feel emotion. Kuro's neurochemistry had always been isolated from this particular portion of the brain so Kuro has never felt emotion, as I have mentioned before.

There are some things she can feel however: nostalgia, sentimentality, trust, hope, appreciation, gratitude, annoyance, contentment (of a sort), and surprise, as well as fear and lust to a lesser degree (the amygdala, where both fear and lust originate, is still active in Kuro-mode, but far less so).

**Kuroko's ESPer Ability-** Level 4. "Teleport". Normal teleportation exploits the shortcuts that exist in an 11th dimensional grid that render distances which are considerable in a 3 dimensional system into miniscule distances that measure in the nanometers rather than meters. This allows basically instantaneous motion which is limited by the meta-dimensional property of mass as well as distance between target and destination.

Kuroko's ability however, as I have previously mentioned, is different. She can shift something's very existence to a different set of coordinates with no movement involved whatsoever. She does this by warping the dimensional grid itself, causing the origin point and the destination point to exist as the same space and making the object exist in two places at once with both of those places being infinitely small. Since this is impossible, the universe autocorrects the mistake by depositing the object at the destination point and straightening out the warped grid. She does not yet know that this is how it works however.

All other mass which exists in the space which exists in the destination space is warped away from the object meaning that teleportation into an object would destroy only the object at the destination (unless it was destroyed in the intervening time by the environment, like the windows which were destroyed by the weight of the pillar) meaning that if Kuroko made the same mistake as Awaki and teleported into a wall, she would be fine but the wall would be damaged.

Also, since there is no indication otherwise, I am going to say that Kuroko's weight and distance restriction are graded on a curve rather than a set point, meaning that she could teleport a greater weight a shorter distance and a smaller weight a greater distance. The curve is quite steep so it becomes impractical quickly however.

Accuracy is based on the difference between the maximum weight and distance and the actual weight and distance, so teleporting something like a needle a short distance is incredibly accurate but teleporting the maximum weight the maximum distance is far less so.

**Mai: **

**ESPer ability(which is frequently mistaken for "Hime"'s ability)-** Level 3. "Light-Screen". Mai's ability is to project a barrier which redirects energy away from it. It is different from a forcefield in that it allows solid and liquid mass to pass through, but blocks non-mass-based energy like lasers, lightning, and radiation. It has limited protection capabilities against gas-based energy like heat and thermal expansion. This allows her to completely contain explosions if they stay below a certain magnitude and muffle those that go above that threshold.

Suffers from the disease called love.

"**Hime":**

**ESPer ability(which is frequently mistaken for Mai's ability)-** Level 4. "Fission blast". Hime is able to break apart the nucleus of atoms making them undergo rapid fission and creating a nuclear explosion. She can do this using any atoms but Uranium, being the most unstable stable element, is her preference as it is exceptionally unlikely to cause other atomic nuclei to break apart and create a chain reaction(because a chain reaction of nuclear explosions is generally a bad idea).

Her range is so small that any significant blast would kill her as well without some form of protection making it a somewhat inconvenient ability.

Because fission reactions of Uranium (even small ones) produce radiation, she was afflicted with radiation poisoning during the development of her ability which severely weakened her immune system causing her to become quite sickly. Since meeting Mai (whose power blocks radiation and allows larger scale use of her powers without side effects or risk of self-destruction) she has begun to make a recovery.

**Riko:**

**ESPer ability-** Level 1. "Adaption". Riko's power allows him to change the function of different parts of his brain. He can turn the portion of his brain devoted to art and music into a portion devoted to math instead, robbing him of artistic talent but boosting his mathematical ability. It also allows him to section his brain like a computer and run separate programs at once.

He has used this power to "get rid of the unnecessary portions devoted to such silly things as culture" as well as his sense of taste and smell and replace them with additional memory, logic, and creative abilty. He can also shift parts that he is not using on a temporary basis, allowing him to turn off motor ability to his legs when he is sitting at his computer and replace it with a temporary boost in processing power.

**Birdy:**

**ESPer Ability-** Level 2. "Slick-Skin". Birdy is able to change the coefficient of friction for anything she touches by telekinetically filling in or making worse the small grooves that cause friction. She can also change an object's air resistance by the same method. This allows her to create objects that are perfectly frictionless. She uses this on her shoes to "skate" along the ground, making them have high friction when she pushes then low friction when she slides. Using this method her maximum speed is… just below the speed of light technically, since nothing is going to slow her down.

She can only affect an object by touching it but the effects last for 15 seconds afterwards. Higher power levels may eventually improve this, which is what Itora hopes.

Suffers from the disease called compassion.


	31. Toaru Karada no Shōgai

**Important note: This is and will remain a "T" rated fic. This chapter may skirt a few lines but I assure you that it never steps over it, even when it looks like it might.**

* * *

Toaru Karada no Shōgai

A Certain Disturbance of Body

* * *

A familiar feeling fell over Misaka as a gentle pressure, warm and slightly wet, pressed against her lips while another, slightly rougher, pressure was applied to her chest with a skillful hand.

Misaka sighed internally. 'Great another one of these dreams…" she thought to herself. She was getting rather tired of them, and tired of replacing the singed bed sheets each morning. She was glad that Kuroko had been so busy these past couple mornings. It would have been embarassing if she knew about Misaka's little problem.

She felt a gentle prodding against her lips and opened her mouth to allow Kuroko's tongue entrance.

As tiring as they were getting, there was nothing to do other than play along until it was over, not that that was a particularly unpleasant process. In fact this felt…

Felt…

The gears in Misaka's head started to turn slowly trying to work out exactly what was wrong with this picture. Of course the entire concept was shameful, but that was not what was bugging her. Something else about this simply felt… off.

'Wait… if this is a dream then how can I feel something?'

It took a second for this to sink in but when it did the reaction was immediate. Her eyes shot open to see that her "dream" was no dream at all. Kuroko hovered over her kissing her in real life.

In an instant she pushed her perverted roommate off of her onto the other side of the bed. She sat up straight, flushed completely red with a mix of embarrassment and rage. She glared at the other girl and opened her mouth to yell at her, but her scolding died in her throat as she noticed something odd: Kuroko was flushed as deeply as Misaka was. That was not the only thing Misaka saw as Kuroko laid on the bed shivering, her breathing was shallow and fast. The teleporter's eyes were glazed and unfocused, every sound and movement bespoke pain.

Misaka put her hand on Kuroko's forehead. "Kuroko, you're burning up," she said as she felt the heat that radiated from her. Misaka estimated it to be around 39.5 degrees [C].

"Onee-sama," Kuroko said in a half-whimper half-moan. Her head pushed against Misaka's hand as she rolled over onto her side and reached out to her. The movement was clumsy as shaking rattled her entire body.

"You're really sick," Misaka said, as if Kuroko were unaware of this fact. Kuroko meanwhile had wrapped her arms around Misaka's waist. One hand played across the skin of Misaka's back as she gently kissed the bare skin of her stomach.

"That doesn't mean," Misaka said slowly, her anger rising with her blush at this fawning attention, "that you have no control. So get off," with this she pushed Kuroko off once again. Kuroko made a noise, a whimper of pain, as Misaka did this. Despite that she was back at Misaka's waist the next second saying "Onee-sama" with much the same intonation, or lack thereof, that a zombie would demand brains with.

'Or maybe it does...' she thought. Recently Kuroko had been much better at following her cease and desist demands so the fact that she wasn't now might be an indication that this was worse than she thought. There was the possibility with Kuroko that it was all some elaborate ploy but that possibility was low and Misaka decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. She sighed and carefully pulled Kuroko off her again. Then she stood up, "I'm going to get changed and get a cold rag for your forehead," she shoved her pillow into her grasp, "you can hug that until I get back," she said as she began walking for the closet.

Before she could get halfway there she heard Kuroko call out to her, "Onee-sama?" in a concerned tone of voice. "Just be patient," she responded and kept on walking.

When she had just gotten to the closet she heard a thump from behind her. She turned to see Kuroko had fallen out the bed. She lay on the floor, her head gazing around the room in a panic. "Onee-sama? Kuro?" she asked, and in her voice Misaka heard something that had only heard from her twice before—Fear.

Seeing this reaction Misaka rushed back over to her and picked her up, "I'm here Kuroko," she said comfortingly. Now Misaka knew she was not faking, that panicked voice could not be faked.

"Onee-sama?" the frightened girl asked again. She pressed her quivering head against Misaka's chest. After a second or two she said, "Onee-sama," once again, this time as a statement rather than a question. The fear had disappeared from her voice. "Kuro gone, Onee-sama here." the now calm but still shivering girl said nonsensically. For a second Misaka wondered who or what Kuro was but she decided that it wasn't that important.

'All right... so I can't leave her alone,' she sighed, 'that means I can't even move around unless I carry her with me.' It looked like Misaka's day had been booked. "Looks like our date will have to be canceled," she said as if the temptation of that alone could magically cure her of all ailments, and knowing Kuroko it might.

Of course that brought up the issue of schedule. Her day had been free anyway, which is why she had scheduled the date for today, but she did not know if Kuroko had work. Kuroko's schedule was on her phone which was on her desk.

The logistics involved in moving even that short distance were too complicated, so Misaka picked the easy route and magnetized the phone sending it shooting to her hand. After the accidents involving her first two, Kuroko had decided to get an insulated phone. This meant that Misaka's maneuver did not damage it. Now that she had it, she filtered through the various menus until finally she found the schedule. It did indeed list today as a work day, which meant that Misaka had to call in for her.

Misaka dialed the number for the Judgment offices. It rang once...twice... then halfway through the third ring the dial tone cut off as the other end of the line hung up.

Misaka raised her eyebrow at this but decided that it was nothing and she would just call back later. Then, just as she was about to put Kuroko's phone away it rang. She checked the screen to see that there was an incoming text from Saten.

"Hey, do you and Misaka want to hang out today?"

Looking down at the girl attached to her hip, she soon texted back, "Kuroko's sick and I'm looking after her so we can't. Sorry. -Misaka"

* * *

Kuroko was not actually sick though. Misaka did not know it but the fever was neither a sign of nor the result of an illness, but rather of a tantrum. The tantrum wasn't a ploy or a cry for attention though; Kuroko had no control of this particular tantrum. She wasn't even the one who was throwing it.

Kuroko had been under a lot of stress recently, and the emotional stress had only been a small part of it. The physical and mental stress from the past two weeks alone were far beyond what someone her age, what someone any age, could reasonably be asked to handle. She received numerous injuries, took in less food and sleep than a dieting bat, and had pushed almost every part of her body to and past its limit repeatedly. This had caused her brain to have a little fit over its poor working conditions.

It had happened only three times before. Once when she was six, one two years later on April 11th (one week after the clock had struck 12:01). The last time it had happened was two years ago. The first time it had happened it wasn't very serious, but the second time was severe. This one was probably slightly worse than halfway in between the two. Each time it had happened it had been triggered by extreme exertions and stresses of both body and mind. In response to this stress her brain had panicked and it was now in the process of checking if all systems were still functional.

The process itself had no medical precedence; it was a direct result of Kuroko's unusual and unique neurochemistry. Specifically the cause was a problem that her brain had in reading the signals from her two neural control centers. Normally it could work around this but sometimes, in situations of extreme mental and physical stress, the lack of signals from Shiro that happened when Kuro assumed control of certain portions of the brain would be read as death. The brain would read this as a malfunction but conducted a check on all systems to ensure that they were still working and that Kuroko was not, indeed, dead.

It had never been studied so it had no scientific name, but if Kuroko had to assign a name to it, she would likely call it Hell.

During Hell, the stressed little girl's hypothalamus, possibly the most neglected portion of her brain as of late and the controller of many functions including her core body temperature, inflicted her with a high fever in an attempt to defend her body during the process. The fever also effectively immobilized her body and shutting down any ability to form rational thoughts, preventing her from applying additional stresses to her body for the duration of Hell.

Now immobilized, the hypothalamus began to test its other functions to ensure that they worked as well. She was inflicted with a terrible, insatiable hunger and a horrible, unquenchable thirst which would fluctuate for the rest of the day, causing her to feel like she was starving one minute than stuffed the next, with similar cycles of deep sleep then vague wakefulness. It also triggered an incredible feeling of fatigue and an inexplicable sense of fear. Meanwhile the rest of her brain and body were doing the same. Her adrenals flooded her system with adrenaline causing her heart to race and her breathing to quicken. Her body would flare with constant and severe pain as her nervous system checked each and every nerve ending. Her sense of sight and hearing were dimmed so that the sensory information would not disrupt the rest of the process. Her sense of taste and smell were as acute as ever and her sense of touch was actually heightened due to the nerves increased sensitivity.

All the while the part of her brain that maintained a dim sentience struggled to react to this. The pandemonium of the rampaging neurochemicals and hormones, combined with the fever's delusions and hindrance of rational thought, caused her to default to her most primal behavioral pattern in which she would attempt to ensure her own safety and security, and meanwhile fulfill another desire stirred up by her hyperactive hypothalamus.

If either of them had known this is what she was doing then it could have been considered a compliment, even an honor. Never before had she seen another person as a source of security. Normally the only name on her tongue during a cry for help was Kuro's. She hadn't ever had anyone else on whom she could truly rely; she hadn't ever had anyone else to whom she could show weakness. Had Kuro been able to form rational thoughts she might have commented upon the irony of this, but she had fewer words at her command than Shiro did at the moment.

* * *

Putting Kuroko's phone down on the floor where she could easily reach it again if necessary, Misaka thought about what she would need to do. She thought back to those days as a kid when she had a fever and her mother took care of her. Then she looked back down at Kuroko.

"First things first. You need fluids and a warm meal," she said, "my mother always used to make me this special soup when I was sick. It's one of the few things that I actually know how to cook."

Misaka stood up, this time picking the sick teleporter up as well to prevent her from panicking again. She brought her over to the kitchen and seated her in a chair. It took many complex maneuvers and far too much time, but eventually she managed to get the soup ready. She sat down in the chair next to Kuroko and set the bowl in front of her. She held out a spoon for Kuroko.

Kuroko looked briefly at the proffered object and then reached out to it, but rather than the spoon she took Misaka's hand in her own and said, "Onee-sama."

Misaka rolled her eyes. "What are you? Four?" she asked. Her crimson blush was quite deep at this point with all the physical contact and it was only getting worse as time went on. 'playing nurse is one thing and plenty bad enough, but playing nurse in this stupid thing' she thought, referring to the choice of nightwear that Kuroko had picked out for her last night as a final birthday request, 'I must have been out of my mind! She must have hypnotized me or something.' It was not particularly naughty considering that it was Kuroko who had chosen it, but it left far more bare skin than her usual pajamas.

Still... "Fine... I'll feed it to you. But you better eat it, I worked damn hard to make it" she said taking the spoon in her own hand and dipping it into the bowl. She blew on it to cool it down then held it out to Kuroko again. "Say 'Ahh'."

Kuroko, seeing this, pried her head away from her Onee-sama and smelled the hot soup on the spoon. The soup smelled delicious and came just as she was struck with her ravenous hunger. She looked at Misaka and opened her mouth. Spoon after spoon went by like this until the bowl was empty.

* * *

After that Misaka thought of what else needed to be done. She noticed how sweaty Kuroko's pajamas were and that caused her to remember what her mother would do when this happened to her. She would wipe her down with a damp cloth and get her a change of clothes. The thought caused Misaka's blush to deepen and a slight panic to overtake her as she questioned what she should do.

Finally she reached her decision, "this is all for you so you better be damn grateful," she said to Kuroko, who looked to be half-asleep but still clung to her. She filled a clean bowl with water and put a washcloth in it then took it and Kuroko over to her bed, careful not to spill. The bathroom was too small to do this easily in.

Now came the difficult step, she needed to get Kuroko out of her top. Misaka didn't know when she had started to care about Kuroko's nakedness; certainly she hadn't cared when the overeager teleporter had flashed her after Misaka's horrible experimentation with Judgment work, but now she found herself uneasy at the prospect. She made sure to look away as she began unbuttoning Kuroko's pajama top (which was for once actually more conservative than Misaka's). Her hands shook as she undid the buttons and she had to remind herself not to peek while at the same time questioning why she had to remind herself.

Eventually she managed to unbutton the entire thing and slip it off of Kuroko's slender frame. She reached down for the washcloth as her mind continued to race, 'It's not really peeking, I need to look for this next part... it's just a quick look," she said, finally deciding to take maybe one quick glance at Kuroko's bare chest.

After that she picked up the washcloth and began ringing the water out of it. Then she dropped it back in as she did a double-take, her eyes wide and disbelieving.

The sick, shivering girl's entire torso was covered in bruises. Splotchy discoloration marred nearly every inch of the flesh. The parts that were not dyed purple by bruises were even worse off it looked. At the bottom of her stomach was wrapped a bandage. On the left side of the bandage was a large bloodstain which looked dried. There was a similar bloodstain on the other side suggesting that something had impaled her to inflict the injury. On her shoulder and back were two large electrical burns.

The only other spot free from discoloration were five thin white lines that sliced up across her entire torso. Misaka reached out. She placed her fingers on each of these lines and followed them down, trailing her finger across the Kuroko's injured torso. She knew what the scars were from; they were from Kuroko's fight with Ita.

Kuroko stirred from her near sleep state as her brain randomly switched from tired to alert in a flash. With this also came a flood of new tortures as another wave of hormones were unleashed on her brain and body.

"Onee-sama," she said simply to the horrified looking girl hovering over her. She reached up and grabbed onto her pulling her down onto the bed. Then she rolled over on top of her and began kissing her deeply.

Misaka was startled by this sudden aggressiveness and moved to push her off, but she stopped her hand just as the fingers touched the scarred tissue on Kuroko's skin. At the feel of the teleporter's horrific injuries, the electromaster hesitated. Now that she had seen Kuroko's condition, Misaka found herself afraid that Kuroko would break if she touched her, as if she had just discovered the rotting timbers that supported an otherwise structurally flawless bridge.

Misaka couldn't risk hurting the feverish girl further considering how much pain she already seemed to be in from the sickness. Misaka couldn't push her away or discourage her physically, nor could she, in the state that Kuroko was in, discourage her any other way. So she simply found herself lying there trying to ignore the distractions and work out what had gone on and when it had happened.

The source of the burns were quite obvious to the electromaster. She had caused them herself. Her dreams the past couple of nights and the viscous electricity that they produced were easily powerful enough to burn even the hardy teleporter. The knowledge that she had once again hurt her girlfriend cause Misaka to feel a crushing guilt.

But thought she knew when this had happened the other injuries were harder to tell. The last time she could remember seeing the normally "loose" girl's bare chest had been the day before the incident with Ita. She could recall Kuroko worrying about having scars. She had asked if Misaka would consider her beautiful even with them and Misaka had comforted her telling the teleporter she wouldn't care. Still, since that day, the normally shameless girl had not once revealed her chest to her roommate. Her conservative choice of nightwear recently must have been to hide these from her.

'It seems she didn't trust me enough to tell the truth,' Misaka thought to herself sadly as her fingers mindlessly traced the scars on Kuroko's stomach and back.

Kuroko never showed her injuries to Misaka and never showed her pain to anyone. Kuroko could hide it so well that, during the Level Upper incident, Uiharu had had to tell her about Kuroko's state of being. The fight with Ita was the perfect example. Kuroko must have been feeling pain equal to or greater than Misaka had been feeling, yet she stood and fought while Misaka had been paralyzed. She had withstood all that and more without showing an single ounce of pain or sign of discomfort. But if that was when she had received the scars then what about the other wounds? The bruises couldn't be from too long ago, the discoloration wasn't dark enough for that, so it had probably been in the past couple of days. Could it have been something at work? And what about the bandage wrapped around her stomach, the wound that had gone straight through her, when had that been and what had it been from?

'Kuroko…' Misaka thought sadly, 'what have you been hiding from me. And why?'

* * *

Saten was bored. Her best friend, Uiharu, would probably be buried in that game of hers for the entire day.

"Oh well," she said with a shrug, "I have other friends." She got out her phone and looked over her contact list. Kuroko would probably want to hang out with her, she had seemed quite happy about her gift yesterday. Not only that but it would probably be a good chance to make sure that Misaka wasn't too mad at her about it.

With that sorted out she sent Kuroko a text but was fairly surprised to read the response. In contrast to the illness-prone Uiharu, Saten had never heard of nor seen Kuroko sick. It worried her slightly so she decided to drop by and check up on her. She stopped by a bakery on the way, hoping that something sweet might help her feel better like it helped Uiharu.

She decided to surprise them so she didn't bother texting in advance. She was slightly surprised to hear that Misaka was looking after Kuroko. Misaka didn't seem to be the motherly type nor was she the type to hold back if Kuroko tried anything just because she was sick.

'I hope she's taking good care of her' she thought as she opened the door to their room and took a step in, "Hey Misaka, Kuroko. I thought I'd stop by and…" she stopped as she saw the scene in front of her.

It seemed that Misaka was indeed taking very good care of Kuroko. Both of them were, to the extent that Saten could see, naked on Misaka's bed. Kuroko was on top of Misaka making out with her and the most surprising thing was that Misaka wasn't resisting. In fact the embrace that she held Kuroko in seemed to pull her closer. It seemed that they hadn't heard Saten because neither of them reacted at all, simply continuing their "fun".

Saten dropped the bag of pastries and, without another word, quietly stepped back out of the room and closed the door. She sat down outside the door and tried to pick apart what she had just seen and make sense of it.

As she sat she heard voices from within.

"Please oh please tell me that did not just happen," Misaka pleaded her voice unsteady with some unidentifiable emotion.

"Onee-sama…" Kuroko said weakly and drearily, her voice sounding as if she had just woken up. "Returned from the grave" would probably be a better description for her tone.

"I need to calm down. She has no reason to suspect that that was anything other than you being you right? She doesn't know about our relationship," Misaka said, trying desperately to comfort herself. "I'm sure I can just sort this all out… right?" there was a pause then she heard Misaka whimper, "Kuroko please get your hands off… I'm trying to clean up your mistake here."

Saten had heard a little more than enough. She stood up and walked off, thinking all the while. One phrase in particular stuck in her head: "Our relationship". That was what Misaka had said. So that meant… 'Misaka's boyfriend… was Kuroko?'

The more Saten thought about it the more it began to make sense. All the little hints over the past weeks became clearer and clearer the more she thought about it. The description that Misaka had given her about her "boyfriend" matched Kuroko exactly. The timing matched as well and it certainly explained how she could have had a "boyfriend" for so long without them realizing it. It also explained the pairs odd behavior as of late. They were probably spending less time with her and Uiharu because they were spending more time with each other.

The whole thing seemed so obvious now and Saten wondered why she hadn't figured it out before, but the aggressiveness with which Misaka always denied Kuroko's advances had been extremely convincing. Added with Misaka's apparent childish naivety, Saten was still having trouble believing that she was involved in such a "mature" relationship and with Kuroko to boot.

Still… "What does this mean? How should I react to this," she asked herself. The answer was simple enough in a sense. Saten would of course support their relationship to her fullest. Though this revelation certainly made her rethink a few things, it did not affect her opinion of either Misaka or Kuroko at all. She understood that the reason they were keeping their relationship a secret was probably a fear of persecution, but they had nothing to worry about from her.

That wasn't the difficulty of the question though. 'How should I react to this,' she repeated again in her mind as she knocked on the door in front of her. 'I suppose this is the place to start. After all if they are like that…'

The door opened up. "Saten-san? What are you doing here?" Uiharu asked with a quizzical look.

Saten stepped forward, leaned down, and kissed Uiharu briefly. "I think I love you." She told her simply.

* * *

It had taken a while but finally both Misaka and Kuroko had calmed down a bit. Misaka was still a little bit frantic, though for the most part she had convinced herself that things would work out. Kuroko looked like she was sleeping at the moment, but the strength with which her hand gripped Misaka's arm was far higher than it should have for someone who was half asleep. Still it was not enough to hurt Misaka, if just barely. Kuroko had never hurt her and never would; it was the one thing she could count on.

The lull in activity allowed Misaka to wash off Kuroko and redress her (and get a change of clothing herself as well), but the image of Kuroko's maimed chest still reverberated in her mind.

She felt her arm being squeezed and turned to look at Kuroko who had begun to writhe in pain again. This time she began to speak as she writhed, though the "words" were unintelligible gibberish. It sounded more like she was spouting off the alphabet and other random sounds than like she was truly speaking. Only the last sentence made any resemblance of sense.

"Kuro….help…it hurts…" she whimpered.

A second later the writhing stopped and her face fell, "_shhh Shiro. I'm here, it's all right_," Kuroko whispered. This was followed by a few more strings of unintelligible gibberish then she fell silent. Her chest slowly rose and fell only slightly faster than usual, signaling that she was now peacefully asleep.

Misaka sighed inwardly, she was glad that she seemed to be feeling a bit better. "Honestly first a nurse then a toy and now a safety blanket. You can never complain ever again, is that understood," she said to the sleeping girl sternly but to no one's surprise she did not receive an answer.

Now that Kuroko was asleep, Misaka distracted herself with what any distraction she could find within an arm's reach. She did this for the next hour or so until Kuroko woke up again. Her eyes cracked open slightly. She let go of Misaka and simply said, "water".

Now that Misaka was free from Kuroko's grip she could go to the kitchen without the hassle of bringing Kuroko along. She fetched a glass of water and went back to the bed. Sitting Kuroko up, she helped her drink the cold beverage. Then she laid her back down on her back and put the glass of water back in the kitchen.

This continued for the next while as Kuroko would occasionally wake up and speak a single word, like "hot" or "food", and Misaka would attempt to satisfy the request and she would lapse back into a half-sleep. And eventually, later on in the evening, Misaka fell asleep beside her.

* * *

The next morning Misaka found herself wrapped in Kuroko's embrace like usual. She could feel that she had cooled down considerably which was good.

She shifted in Kuroko's grasp and shook her. Her eyes slowly opened, however, her gaze still seemed a little dead. "Pere-," she mumbled her voice as flat and dead as it had been yesterday, which worried Misaka. Then Kuroko leaned forward and kissed her, just a gentle peck. This time, when she pulled back her eyes and face perked up and she smiled. "Good morning my lovely Onee-sama," she said, her voice as chipper as ever as she hugged Misaka, "are you ready for our date today?"

"That was scheduled for yesterday," Misaka corrected her.

Kuroko cocked her head, "didn't you say Saturday?"

Misaka cocked her head in return, "yeah… that was yesterday. Today is Sunday. You were sick all of yesterday, don't you remember?"

One side effect to Hell was that Kuroko could not remember it. This was probably a good thing as the experience was nothing but unpleasant, but the gap in memory was annoying. Kuroko had been slightly confused as to why Kuro had been in charge when she had woken up, but she had chalked it up to something else.

'I was sick? But I don't remember a thing,' she thought, 'does that mean…'

"Ne… Onee-sama… did I happen to do anything unusual yesterday," she asked as she surreptitiously scanned herself, the room, and her Onee-sama for any abnormalities. She could not remember the experience but she had been told of what had happened during her previous bouts of Hell. She was told that her behavior was odd , odder than usual at least.

The first time it had happened Kuroko had been told that she had clung to Jericho for the entire duration, spouting nonsense and saying that she would protect her from the monsters that existed in her mind alone. The teachers had a difficult time that day and could not separate the two at all even when it seemed that the feverish little child had fallen asleep. The couple times after that she had to be hospitalized during it, and both times it was not because of the fever.

This was why Kuroko was glad to see that the room, herself, and her Onee-sama seemed to be undamaged and why she was even more glad to hear Misaka say, "No, you were just your normal perverted self." There was a slight sharpness to her Onee-sama's tone that Kuroko didn't hear though.

Kuroko smiled. "Ok, sorry for the odd question," she said as she got up, "I'm going to go have a shower." She felt quite icky right now, probably the result of yesterday's ordeals, whatever they might have been.

When she came out of the bathroom she began getting ready. Because of yesterday's misfortunate events (or rather two days ago) she would need to return the stealth-suit and her other toys that were still in her exercise bag to her safe house, so she made sure to double-check the bag's location next to her normal schoolbag.

"So, Onee-sama… since I was sick yesterday how about we go on our date today? I have the day off." She said as she turned to Misaka only to find her looking at her with a serious face on.

"We need to talk first…" Misaka said, and a foreboding chill ran down Kuroko's spine.

* * *

Author's Note: One bad day for Kuroko and one "bad" day for Misaka. Things are even on that front I guess.

Anyway…Imagination is a powerful tool. Sometimes the author benefits more by letting the audience create their own scenarios and simply laying out the groundwork. Sometimes implication is more powerful than explanation, and in this case implication is far more family friendly.

On that note I have a question: Is the scene Saten walked in on "not what it looks like" or "exactly what it looks like"?

* * *

Dedications: I would like to dedicate this chapter to the wonderful writer Cun and his superb fanfictions. He has been a great influence to me as a writer.


	32. Toaru Imi no Sori

Toaru Imi no Sori

A Certain Warping of Meanings

* * *

"We need to talk first," Misaka said as she sat on her bed looking at Kuroko.

"Oh," Kuroko replied simply, sitting down at her desk, "what about?" She asked, though she feared she knew already. The teleporter had long since learned to discern what her roommate was feeling through the subtle physical indicators that everybody had. The electro-master was especially easy to read, her body betrayed her emotions easily in lieu of an ability to express them verbally.

The subtle knitting of her brow indicated some sort of worry or displeasure. The tense muscles and slightly clenched fingers indicated an all too familiar anger or annoyance. The degree of the anger, which was far lower than her Onee-sama's usual sparking ire, likely meant that it was something that had been building for a while.

Though the signs were bad Kuroko maintained a smile, her impenetrable mask. After all, the fearful little girl wouldn't want her Onee-sama to waste her valuable energy worrying about her, and she knew she would. The older girl was kind, too kind, kind enough that she would worry even about someone who didn't deserve it.

But Kuroko's state of body and mind was only part of the reason Misaka was worrying. She had been planning all day yesterday exactly what she would say to Kuroko. She had scripted the entire dialogue in her head and it had had a nice happy ending. But now that she had begun she found herself fumbling for words. She now saw all the flaws in what she had planned to say.

"It's about yesterday, and about last week in general," the electro-master began slowly and carefully. She wasn't very good at expressing herself like this so she needed to try extra hard not to mess things up.

"What happened yesterday? I really don't remember a thing," Kuroko said, worrying again. Her voice was so steady, this had clearly been planned out for a while. If it had been just yesterday she would have had an excuse but if it was all of last week…

"Oh you know… the usual. Hugging me without respect for personal space or boundaries, groping me like a perverted old man, kissing me incessantly, oh you also might have revealed our relationship to our friends," she recounted. She had tried to make that statement comforting but her ire over yesterday's events seeped into her words and turned the last half of the sentence into a slightly bitter barb. But the young girl's concern still outweighed her irritation, so it ended up sounding weak. In comparison to what she was here to talk with her about that incident was a minor one.

These last words hit Kuroko hard. It was not the content, she didn't care if her friends knew about their relationship, she knew that Uiharu and Saten would both be fine with it and perhaps they would help show her girlfriend that their love was not a shameful thing that needed to be kept hidden. No, it wasn't what her Onee-sama said that resounded in her ears like a guillotine blade; it was how she said it. Kuroko would have expected Misaka's voice to be panicked or angry, even if the circumstances had rendered the teleporter unable to control herself the electro-master would still pin blame on her for the actions she took. But the young girl heard nothing like panic or anger in her Onee-sama's voice; she heard resignation.

To Kuroko this was the worst possible thing. Anger or panic were easy, she was used to them. Anger or panic would eventually fade away, resignation was a death sentence, once you gave up things were over, and there was no going back.

Her Onee-sama hated giving up more than anything, so for her to have already reached that point… Kuroko must have really screwed things up. And it wasn't just what had happened yesterday, her Onee-sama had said that it had been for the past week.

"But of course," Misaka continued, scolding herself for that slight slip-up and hoping to get back on track to her real goal of reassuring Kuroko that she could be trusted to be told what was going on and then finding out just that, "I am always looking after you. Ever since we met I've worked hard for you, despite all that you've put me through."

This was meant to reassure but now every word was twisted by Kuroko's mind into a regretful, resentful sound. She didn't know exactly what she had done this past week to make her Onee-sama hate her so but she knew that she deserved it. The last few words, meant by Misaka to be humorous, the teleporter saw as evidence of the incredible burden she had been placing on the one she loved, the one she thought she was making happy, the one who she thought she had been helping.

"I've always been there for you, always helping you and doing what I can for you, because you and I are friends. It's been hard work, but I bear it for you," Misaka went on, trying to show Kuroko that she would be there for her and that she could trust her. She was unaware of the awful things that were going on in her girlfriend's head that she was accidently causing. The mask of a smile was still as impeccable as ever and Misaka wasn't skilled enough to see the quivering of Kuroko's hands as she gripped the chair tight enough to turn her knuckles white or the myriad other things that betrayed her feelings.

Kuroko now saw the "truth". Her Onee-sama wasn't happy. Ever since the beginning Kuroko had been nothing but a burden. Her love was a poison that was hurting her wonderful, perfect Onee-sama. Yet the electro-master had been braving through it all… for her. "I understand," the teleporter acknowledged, her voice, though normal sounding to Misaka, was unnaturally steady.

"You do?" Misaka asked, slightly surprised. The slightly awkward girl hadn't expected this to go as smoothly as it had in her imaginings, so she was shocked that it was turning out to be even easier. But she wouldn't look this gift horse in the mouth, "so you know what I want you to do, right?"

"Of course Onee-sama," Kuroko said standing up. She grabbed her schoolbag and the exercise bag which laid beside it, "I'm sorry for being such a burden; I promise I won't cause you any more problems." With that she disappeared.

* * *

Misaka sat there for a while, blinking in confusion. She checked around the dorm to see if Kuroko was still here but she seemed to have definitely left. It felt like something was missing, like a period of time had been cut out of her memory

She could see little other reason that could explain how they had gone from having a nice comforting talk to having the teleporter storm out of the dorm with eyes like a guilty puppy.

She tried to think back and figure out what had gone wrong but she couldn't see anything she had said that would have elicited such a reaction. This raised another question, "What the hell is that girl's problem?" Misaka seethed, a familiar anger descending over her. She didn't even know why she was getting angry.

"Stupid Kuroko. What in the world makes you think that I wanted you to leave? In what world did my kind words and reassurances sound like an eviction notice. Baka baka baka!" she roared as she got angrier and angrier. She had thought it had been going so well so why had Kuroko gone…

But more importantly… why did she sound so hurt when she had left? Though the electro-master refused to admit it was her fault, the thought still existed in her mind that it was something she had said, something that she had done. She had been so worried about how this talk might go, so worried that she would mess up like she always did when trying to express herself.

She thought she had learned how to comfort Kuroko, but maybe she was still as callous now as she had been before.

No... She needed to stop. She was better, she knew she was. She was trying so hard, she couldn't believe that she was still that bad.

"It must all be a misunderstanding," she told herself, "I'll just go and cool down for a little while and things will be back to normal, I'm sure of it."

Thinking of something to fill her time until this misunderstanding was over, she remembered that she had something that she needed to do today. It was Sunday, the day that the Honogun's factories were closed. She needed to go and get the shipping list of those giant robosuits and end that conflict as quickly as possible, she also needed to get the reservation list for the warehouses to ensure that no one else got hurt while she did this.

Now with a purpose, Misaka got dressed and headed out with determination. She arrived a while later at her destination without any sign of trouble. The factory was empty and the door was easy to unlock. Security was minimal and she managed to sneak into the manager's office without any fuss.

She was actually slightly disappointed by this as she began hacking the computer that sat on the desk. She still felt angry and she had been hoping, in the back of her mind, that there would be someone standing in her way that she could let some anger out on. But it turns out her only opponent was this computer and its horrible security (who actually had aikotoba[1] as a password). With a sigh she copied down the shipping logs and wiped all traces of her presence, then she logged off and left.

With such easy obstacles she found it hard to keep herself occupied with just this, and her mind began to wander back to Kuroko and the mess she found herself in with all of this.

'Why doesn't she just trust me? Why is she trying to keep her problems secret? Didn't she scold me for doing the same during The Queen incident?' Misaka thought, irked at Kuroko's hypocrisy while conveniently blind to her own. Instead her mind saw a different flaw with that argument, 'but she got hurt during that fight. Maybe she doesn't trust me because she thinks the same will happen to me if I get involved, that I'll get hurt.'

That thought got her angrier. The Railgun did not like to be underestimated and it annoyed the electro-master how the teleporter managed to look down on her even though Misaka was a level five and Kuroko was just a level four. She had proven again and again that she was tough, that she could handle anyone or anything, yet her roommate still seemed to regard her as a child who needed to be looked after.

Anger truly was easiest for Misaka. It made things simple, it made things easy, it hurt less than worry. Kuroko was just a kid having a temper tantrum right now, and Misaka resolved that she didn't care anymore. She wouldn't appease Kuroko's cry for attention like this.

Misaka arrived at Storm's clubhouse and saw that it too was empty, so she went inside and took a picture of the reservation schedule then left, carefully covering her tracks. After that she headed back to her dorm. The girl's concern was now fully eclipsed by her anger at her annoying little roommate.

* * *

Still, when she arrived back at her room, she was disappointed to see that Kuroko was not back. For a moment her worry flared up again. "Maybe I'll call her… where did I put my phone…" she decided and began to look for it.

After failing to find it on the floor Misaka felt around for it under her bed. She grabbed something and pulled it out. It was a book, one she didn't recognize. She checked its cover to see a vaguely familiar red symbol. It took her a minute to remember where she had seen it before, on Kuroko's creepy photo album. But… looking at the page that it was open to, she saw no pictures. Instead there was writing. At the top, in big letters, were the words "Wedding Photos". In the top right hand corner were the words "Date Imagined" and "Date Occurred". The second one was blank but the first one was dated four days ago, last Wednesday.

The rest of the page was filled with boxes of various sizes, with captions to the right of them. The biggest box read "Onee-sama in her dress". Other boxes had things like "Cake" and "Ring". Misaka looked at each one, gradually getting more and more annoyed, her worry turning back to anger. "She's absolutely insane… planning our wedding again. She acts so possessive and shamelessly and yet she wonders why I am embarrassed by her. She's nothing but an entitled brat who thinks she's better than everyone else," she huffed as she continued looking at the boxes and their captions.

Then suddenly she got to a box that had a big X scrawled over it. The caption was also sloppily crossed out. She looked at the middle of the crossed out box and saw some words. As opposed to the scrawled X and the casual writing of the other captions, these words were written very slowly, very neatly, very formally. On the top half were the words "No Room" and in the bottom half were "Doesn't Belong". Misaka knitted her eyebrows, confused. She tried to make out the crossed out caption. It was barely legible but she managed to figure it out. It said "Me".

There was only one more box, directly next to that one, the exact same size as it. The caption was written in the same neat, formal writing as before. It read "The Person Onee-sama Really Deserves."

* * *

Several months had passed since Kuroko and Misaka's less-than-positive first meeting. In those several months their relationship had undergone several transformations to reach the state that it was now.

Misaka was glad it had happened as well. Kuroko had been the electro-master's first real friend since 5th grade when her powers had begun exponentially increasing. After that nobody could keep up with her. She was regarded as a prodigy by all. It had made things like socializing so difficult.

Kuroko wasn't like that though. She was one of the only people who would actually look down on Misaka from time to time, but only for things that she deserved to be looked down upon for. The teleporter was one of the only people who could look past the electro-master's exterior and see the warmhearted nature that laid within. Her girlfriend was one of the only people that Misaka could trust.

But Kuroko's true advantage as a friend was that Misaka was not afraid of surpassing her and leaving her behind like had happened countless times before. If anything Misaka saw the teleporter as an equal, or perhaps even someone better than herself.

Whereas Kuroko needed to put up a mask of confidence and efficiency, Misaka did not. The electro-master still seemed perfect but she did not need to maintain that image. Though the level five naturally emitted an aura of perfection she did not try to maintain the image like the younger girl did. And even though Kuroko knew her well and saw past this air of perfection, she still saw her girlfriend as perfect, and she tried her hardest to match the unattainable level of beauty, talent, and grace that she imagined the older girl as having.

But this very perfection that she tried to match pushed her Onee-sama away. Sometimes Kuroko appeared inhuman. She powered through anything in her way with a ruthless efficiency that even the super-powerful Railgun had to admire. Not only that, but her determination was nearly unparalleled. Even the thing that most annoyed Misaka about her could be construed as nothing more than a powerful love and an overeager devotion to her Onee-sama; and few things could be seen as true flaws when they were composed of the word "over" in front of a positive attribute.

Kuroko put up a facade of perfection that was difficult to see through. She buried her flaws deep down within herself. She did not want to appear weak or unstable. She did not want those who mattered to her to see all the problems that she struggled with and think less of her for them.

This lead to Misaka, and most other people, thinking Kuroko was an arrogant blowhard, though an efficient one. Even the scars that adorned the teleporter's chest, one of the few flaws that proved the girl's humanity, had done little to sway this opinion of her. But as Misaka's fingers brushed over those words –don't belong—she knew that this arrogance was just a façade, something to try and cover her emotional scars much like she had tried to cover her physical ones.

She remembered now the words that Kuroko had said as she had teleported away: "I'm sorry for being such a burden; I promise I won't cause you any more problems."

Now Misaka realized what had happened. Kuroko didn't hide her problems because she believed that the electro-master couldn't handle it, she hid them because she didn't want her to handle them. She realized now that her words of "encouragement" sounded like she had been confirming this idea.

It really was all Misaka's fault… Her girlfriend had been feeling like this for days and she hadn't noticed at all… on the day this was written she had been so embarrassed that she had tried to avoid Kuroko. The next two mornings she had thought nothing of her roommate's absence even though it should have been a clear sign that something was wrong. And on Friday….

"I didn't think anyone cared" the teleporter had said…

"I'm such an idiot," Misaka said, tearing up. She had tried so hard not to hurt her girlfriend but she failed again and again and now it had come to this.

She wiped her eyes. She couldn't just sit here and let this happen. If she was the cause then she needed to fix this. She would find Kuroko and sort this out, even if it took all day.

* * *

[1]: If you didn't guess from the context, aikotoba is password in Japanese.

* * *

Author's note: This was a hard chapter to write. Dialogue is difficult for me, especially when it is dialogue like this. I don't have any experience with relationships so I'm coming from a difficult place to write from.

It was made easier when I realized that Misaka knew as much about what she was going to say as I did. Her words weren't planned out and neither were mine. And no matter what she said Kuroko was going to take it poorly. Kuroko had already decided the end of the conversation before it began, much like I did, though for different reasons of course.

Also I am adding a couple of new features to the end of my chapters. One is a dedication section where I will dedicate a chapter to someone, reader or writer, that inspires me to keep on going. I added one to last chapter as well. The other is a sneak peek into what's coming up in my story.

* * *

Dedications: This chapter is dedicated to both a good author and a faithful reader: RivyCheria. Your pm really touched me and made me feel good as a writer and I admit that your work partially influenced this chapter so this dedication goes out to you.

* * *

Coming Soon: The Battle of Ryutenshi; the Keyholder's ultimate power revealed.


	33. Toaru Kuro no Honto

Toaru Kuro no Honto

A Certain Black Truth

* * *

_'Once upon a time there was a little dove. At a young age this dove was thrown out of its nest and left to fend for itself. For a short while the dove, hurt not only from the fall but from its time in the nest, stumbled around the woods until one day it came across a pond. In this pond the dove saw its own reflection. It called out to this reflection, desperate for someone, anyone._

_And the reflection answered._

_It was like this for a long time, with the dove speaking and the reflection listening. The dove told it's reflection how it wished to fly and the reflection tried to ensure that one day the dove would be able to do just that._

_Then one day a swan landed in the pond. The dove had never seen a more beautiful sight than this swan and, ignoring its own reflection, it began to try and catch this swan's attention. And the more that she tried to catch the swans attention the more the swan swam around and disturbed the pond, making the dove's reflection weaker and weaker. Until one day when the reflection was broken altogether and the dove, in an attempt to reach the swan which was floating in the middle of the lake completely unaware of the little dove, drowned in the pond. The reflection had been its only barrier between it and the water and in chasing a dream the dove had broken this barrier that kept it safe and had doomed itself.'_

* * *

Ever since Kuro had come into being, it had been one annoyance after another. She genuinely loved and cared for little Shiro, but at the same time she despised her. Shiro caused herself so many problems and left it up to Kuro to fix them.

In the beginning this had been easy enough. When Kuro had formed shortly after the dove had been thrown out of its nest and been thrust into the hell that was the power development program the first problem she had needed to solve was solved merely by her presence, the problem of companionship that the girl had, prior to that point, been almost continuously without.

Back home the young girl had had it easy. There were so many things around the house to distract herself with and her needs were met without a need for interaction. It was why the girls "first" words were "economic decline" spoken when she was 2 and picked up from a radio that was always left on in the study that basically functioned as Kuroko's playpen. Her "first" true sentence had not been until she was 4. This was not because she was slow, in fact she had spoken quite a lot before then, she had even written her own lullaby to lull her to sleep each night, but even with her impressive (for a 4 year old) vocabulary in both Japanese and English, she had never spoken to others. No one else was ever around to speak to.

Had this continued it would have probably affected her in a far more severe fashion than it did, but as it was she left to Academy City and the cornucopia of social interactions that awaited her there before it had truly traumatized her.

Kuro had formed at exactly the right time, just when Shiro was most in need of someone to talk to and someone who could push her on past all the pain and misery that the process of getting ESPer powers comprised of.

* * *

Of course that was not the only thing that Kuro had done. That alone would not have been enough to push her through; she needed motivation, a reason to be strong. Shiro needed someone to be strong for, or more easily, someone to be strong against. She needed someone to hate- a scapegoat that Kuro could use to manipulate Shiro and help to encourage her to push her past her greatest obstacles.

The obvious choice was the parents whose lack of presence had been the cause of Shiro's previous pain and difficulties, and the people whose decision it had been to put her through this process in the first place.

The fact that the parents deserved this hate and contempt factored little in Kuro's decision, all she cared about was Shiro. So, to help the girl that she cared about, Kuro poisoned the dove's mind against the people who had pushed it out of the nest and abandoned it to fend for itself. She convinced Shiro that her parents were her enemies, people to whom one must never show weakness, rivals that one must always strive to overcome, and opponents that one must one day destroy.

Getting rid of emotion was difficult, creating it was even more so, but directing it was easy and effective. All the fear, pain, and despair that Shiro had been feeling towards the trials that she was going through was turned to disgust, contempt, and hate towards her parents. Whereas before she had seen the Power Development Program as an obstacle that she was unsure she could overcome she now saw it as a hated enemy that she knew she must defeat.

* * *

This eased Shiro's trauma, it allowed her to repress some scars and erase others all together. However one scar was still left from the ordeal of her childhood, and in the process of this poisoning (or rather, the process of emotional redirection) it created another.

The scar that had been inflicted before was caused by a conversation Shiro had overheard shortly before she was shipped out to here. It had been a phone conversation of course, Shiro's parents were never at the house, between her mother and their butler who tended to the house and, theoretically if not in practice, the child in it as well.

The phone had been on speaker and she could quite clearly hear her mother's words as she said, "From what you tell me then, going to this Academy City thing would be a good move. It certainly sounds like the best way to get the child out of our hair without doing something disreputable. In fact having a child going to such a prestigious place might be a good thing politically. Let's hope she has some sort of use after all."

Shiro's parents were nouveau riche, very nouveau in fact. They had made their fortune in a remarkably short amount of time just after entering the business world. Within eight months they had gone from middle class to wealthy, and they just continued getting richer.

It just so happened that this eight months was the time that Shiro's mother was pregnant with her. They had gone from two people ready for a child and excited to start a family to two people who were too busy to find time to bother with those things. By the time they realized that they didn't want the child anymore it was too far into the pregnancy to abort and giving her up for adoption would have had a poor effect on their reputation, so they kept her and simply saw to it that her basic needs were met and she did not destroy the house or their reputation.

It was at that point, when she had overheard that conversation between them, that Shiro had begun to hate the word "useless". If she was nothing but an inconvenience then it would prove them right, and that was one thing she could not allow. As long as her parents had no reason to despise her then it was their fault. But if they had a reason... She couldn't let herself believe that she was to blame for what had happened to her, for what she had gone through.

This is the version of her childhood that Shiro believed. It was not far from the truth actually, but Kuro had decided to alter a few things in order to streamline the emotional redirection and ensure that Shiro was not too hurt by it. All it took was some gentle insistence that the memory had gone a certain way, even if it hadn't. Memory was an easy thing to alter, especially when so much of it had simply been buried away.

It was all for Shiro's sake of course. The more she believed her parents deserved to be hated the less guilt she would feel over it after all. It was true that her parents didn't care about her but Shiro wouldn't have hated them for that without Kuro's insistence, despite all the pain it was causing her. The emotional redirection eased this pain, and that was the important thing. One way or another it had stopped the crying. Kuro hated crying, the sound of the sobbing, the feel of the damp tears and stinging eyes, and the pitifulness of the whole ordeal. It was why she had trained Shiro to associate crying with giving up, something that her stubbornness and pride would never let her do easily.

The second scar, the one that the emotional redirection itself had caused, had been a minor one. Shiro had become obsessed with growing up, feeling, rightly so, that she would not be free from her parents until she did so. But this forced upon her a maturity that would go on to help her later on in life so it was a positive effect overall with the only negative being that she became obsessed with having an "adult relationship" as soon as possible.

* * *

With this conditioning, Shiro had made it through the power development program with a determination stronger than when she had entered. After that she had entered schooling.

From the beginning Kuro knew about her social ineptitude Having Kuro had helped her a little bit but she was still unsure how to interact with other people. Kuro was someone without needs or feelings someone who didn't care for social niceties or norms, overall she was an easy friend to maintain. For a while Kuro had thought that this would be enough for the girl. She thought her friendship would be adequate to meet Shiro's needs.

But it turned out that Kuro was wrong. From the first day Shiro had begun to look at the other children playing around with others with longing eyes even as she huddled in the corner with a copy of Don Quixote. She began to yearn for friendship with another child, for human contact with someone her own age.

This posed a difficulty to Kuro. After all, if Shiro put herself out like that then there was a possibility that she could get hurt. She needed someone reliable who would never neglect her or voluntarily abandon her.

So Kuro dissuaded her from taking action until she could figure out how she would do this, but one day Shiro had disobeyed her to save another child from a bully. The other child was a shy little girl with striking blue eyes and beautiful white hair named Asura Soshi and later known to both of them as Jericho.

Kuro soon realized that she would be a perfect friend for Shiro. She was not sure of the shy little girl's reliability, but she realized that she would be an easy person to influence. All it took was a little bit of time to overcome the white haired girl's natural distrust for others and gain just a sliver of her trust.

After that it had been an easy matter to ensure that Shiro would never be hurt by her. Though Kuro did not understand emotions or feelings and had about as much knowledge of relationships as Shiro did, she did understand one type of relationship quite intimately: dependence.

Dependence was the strongest bond that could be formed between two people and the only one that grew stronger as time went by. Kuro understood that emotions were fragile things, that waxed and waned as often as the moon but with far, far less reliability. Kuro knew a relationship based on nothing but emotion would be subject to this ever-changing maelstrom and would soon be consumed by it. At this point the only safe option that Kuro saw was to base this relationship of Shiro and Jericho off of dependence.

Of course the dependence would need to be one sided in case things did not work out. If a bond of mutual dependence was broken forcibly then both people, suddenly missing the link that was helping them to meet their needs, would be severely hurt by it, But if the dependence was one sided then only the dependent one would be severely hurt. The non-dependent one would still be hurt, but the loss would be that of a friend rather than that of someone who they relied on to fill their basic needs.

To Shiro Jericho was a good friend. She liked protecting her and in that protection she had found what she believed to be her calling. Jericho helped her feel useful and wanted. It was also Shiro's interaction with her which had allowed her to grow up to become a well-balanced individual without any crippling social problems.

So, at Kuro's insistence, under the guise of advice on how to build a friendship, Shiro had begun to learn how to strengthen her relationship with Jericho by forging and strengthening the bond of emotional dependence.

Shiro was surprisingly adept at gaining the Jericho's trust and soon the white haired girl had begun to trust her with everything. Shiro became her voice, speaking up for her when she was too shy to speak up herself. Shiro became her shield, defending her from bullies and dogs and everything else. Shiro became her confidant, the only person who she could talk freely with about anything.

Soon Jericho had found herself relying on Shiro for many things. It was a subtle change and the all around it was viewed as a positive thing, both by the teachers who were glad that the class's loners and top students had finally found friends in each other, and by the children themselves. At such a young age this dependence condition was completely disregarded, simply being seen as ordinary childhood behavior.

For two years it continued like this and it seemed like there would be no negative effects.

* * *

That turned out to be quite incorrect.

Jericho, perhaps expectantly, was impacted hard by this extended dependent relationship when the two separated. She never made any more friends. She did not know how. Shiro had been the only friend she had ever needed. Other people were too scary for her. This mindset caused her shyness to get worse and worse, eventually becoming the borderline Agoraphobia that it was now. The positive side of that was that it had introduced her to her true calling as an inventor.

Kuro had liked her and was admittedly regretful when she had seen how she had become. Shiro still did not truly understand what she had done, but Kuro knew.

But that was not Kuro's only reason for regret. That relationship had caused a big problem for Shiro later on and in a sense all of it could be traced back to Kuro's actions... and that incident...

* * *

It was the incident that had caused so many problems.

It had happened when Shiro was 8 years old. To be specific it happened on April 4th at exactly one minute past noon, 12:01. Shiro had been involved in a little altercation and had made a simple mistake and accidentally killed somebody.

Despite the minorness of the situation it had haunted Shiro ever since. What had haunted her even more was the fact that the entire situation was completely ignored. She had confessed to the police immediately, drenched in tears. But the day after that the entire case was buried deep, the only evidence that anything had happened had been buried the next day in the only cemetary in the city.

For the next five days Shiro undertook a campaign to destroy herself, seeking retribution for this perceived sin that she had committed. She began training herself into the ground, running until she collapsed. She didn't eat at all and the only sleep she got were the times when she passed out. For five days she attempted to push herself into the grave.

It was the first time she had not listened to anything Kuro had to say.

Eventually, a week after the incident had occurred, she was stricken with Hell and collapsed on the side of the road where she was soon found and brought to the hospital where she was forced to stay for another week.

In that week Kuro, who was finally being listened to again, had tried to return her to a functional, non-suicidal state of mind.

However she would not accept the fact that the incident was not her fault. Kuro couldn't alter the memory or repress it or do anything else.

So she had tried a different trick. Rather than trying to convince her that it wasn't her fault she assured Shiro that it was her fault but she was being selfish by trying to train herself to an early grave. Kuro told her that his death could not be taken back and she did need to make up for it, but she could not make up for his death with her own.

Kuro had used the guilt and transformed it into a selfless determination. Whereas before, joining Judgment and helping people had been a hope, now it was a duty.

She never stopped feeling guilt, nor did she ever stop her ridiculous self-persecution, but now she was not at a risk of killing herself which meant that Kuro could let time heal her wounds.

In the four years between that point and the day she joined Judgment she had improved greatly. The scars remained and her view of herself as a brave and valiant knight was forever shattered, but she slowly improved. Her self-destructive behavior dwindled down to almost nothing, but her daily training was a little too harsh for someone her age and any moment not devoted to training her body was devoted to training her mind and power instead, leaving her no free time to devote to her enjoyment and less time than was healthy for rest . Rather than seeing her power as the cause of the accident and vowing never to use it again, she instead blamed her own lack of control and vowed to learn to improve and control it.

* * *

It was a hard time but Kuro worked hard to see Shiro through it. And for a while things looked like they would turn out all right. Then the pereskia got involved.

The pereskia had caused so many problems. Up to that point the only true relationship Shiro had had had been one of dependence, one that Kuro had orchestrated. But now Kuro's plans backfired. Because the previous relationship had been her only experience with those sort of things she thought that that was the norm and so she formed another one around this person who she had found out had saved her life before, this beautiful swan that from that moment on became everything to her. Shiro even went so far as to define her sexuality around this girl, from that day forth becoming a Misaka-sexual.

When handled carelessly dependent relationships were caustic to the dependent one. With Jericho Kuro had been careful not to step over the line but the pereskia didn't know about this line. She didn't know exactly how this other girl felt about her even when it was clear as day and still didn't understand exactly how her actions affected the infatuated little dove.

The pereskia did not know the meaning of gentle. She was harsh and destructive and knew only how to hurt. She still tried to be Shiro's friend despite the fact that such a compromise was completely one sided. She would push Shiro away but never far enough away to discourage anything.

Every time the pereskia pushed Shiro away it broke her down more and more. Yet Shiro would never complain. Her desire for persecution assured that she thought that she deserved this treatment. Her lack of relationship experience as well as her overwhelming desire to experience an adult relationship ensured a continuous cycle of overeager pursuit followed by an aggressive and harsh rebuke that she would learn nothing from and would simply use to reaffirm her belief that she did not deserve anything better.

It was a harmful process that lead to a slow erosion of Shiro's psyche. But it was a gradual process that provided enough momentary stability to allow Shiro to enjoy the good times. She was happy but not too happy.

This was a good thing and this was why this new, closer relationship she had now entered with Misaka scared Kuro. As long as she was at a low but constant level of happiness no event could topple her. A plateau was hard to fall off, and if you did fall then there wasn't far to go down. But these sharp peaks of happiness that she was now experiencing that rose and fell so suddenly left her a long long way to fall. As long as she was consistently unhappy she would grow used to it, but if great happiness was dangled in front of her only to be yanked away at the last second then it was worse than no happiness at all.

The once caustic cycle was broken and turned into a chain that the pereskia was constantly yanking, even when she didn't know it. Already it was at a time when their mind had been ravished and their brain itself was hurt. Already it was at a time when Shiro's psyche was at its weakest, when she was questioning her own sanity.

Her brain and her body were in shambles and every single minute she spent with the pereskia was like a boulder turning the broken glass shards that were her mind into a fine powder.

For 4 years Kuro had been free from the sound of sobbing and the horrid feel of tears coursing down their shared face. But the pereskia had ruined that, she had thrown Shiro, body and mind, into chaos.

Kuro hated the pereskia.

Kuro hated how Shiro loved her more.

* * *

Author's Note: _"Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — in order that the reader may see what they are made of."_

—**Kurt Vonnegut**, "Eight Rules for Writing Fiction"

This was an interesting chapter to write and I am extremely excited to see how opinions of Kuro change after this.

It was so interesting to look at the psychology of the whole situation and Kuroko's history through a non-emotional aspect. It is hard to examine the true inner workings of a character when emotion is distorting perceptions. By providing someone who can admit all these things that are happening without emotional justification it can help the audience to see the matter from an unbiased point of view and allow them to decide how they feel, rather than telling them how to feel through the characters.

Oh and if you're wondering how this has anything to do with last chapters "Coming soon" section… it doesn't. Soon is a relative term after all. The things in that section will eventually happen, I am not just typing some random words. Every event that I talk about is planned to happen sometime in the future, but sometimes quite far in the future. So have fun with that.

Edit: Oh and just so you know. I do not think murder is a minor thing at all. Kuro does, however. She only sees Shiro's life as being important and would consider murder a useful tool to prevent people from being able to hurt Shiro ever again if only it didn't upset Shiro so much (like in her introduction chapter "Toaru Kado no Hanten" where she would have murdered each and every one of the Skillout that attacked her if she felt like she could without distressing Shiro).

* * *

Dedications: I'd like to dedicate this chapter my wonderful beta reader: ThePolarisProject. I know I am kind of annoying to beta for since I like to post my chapters immediately after I finish writing them and edit them later when I (or someone else) notice typos or mistakes. So thank you for being patient and thank you for working hard on my behalf.


	34. Toaru Aku no Kei

Toaru Aku no Kei

A Certain Scourge of Evil

* * *

Kuroko sat on the edge of a random building no more than 1,147 meters from the dorm. She knew this because she had remembered teleporting only 12 times and her maximum distance when teleporting her body weight in addition to the 24 kilograms of equipment that she was carrying was 95.6 meters. She hadn't really kept track of where she was going within those 1,147 meters nor was she too concerned with figuring it out.

She put her arms behind her and rested her weight upon them, letting out a long sigh. She thought about what had happened and realized something.

"It hurts Kuro," she said simply. She wasn't sure what hurt, maybe it was everything, maybe it was nothing, but it hurt.

"Kuro!" A voice rang out from beside her.

Kuroko turned to look, surprised that she had company and even more surprised to see who, or rather what, it was. A jet black raven was perched beside her perhaps 5 feet away, staring at her with what Kuroko felt was a deep seated purpose. The gaze had an eerie sort of weight to it but she couldn't truly place it. "Ah," Kuroko said, "am I in your spot?" she asked before realizing how silly she was being.

'My spot'? The raven thought. It was an odd question. He was a bird, all the world was his spot in a way but he hardly laid claim to any of it. And what was so special about the spot that she was sitting in that would make her think it was his? It wasn't like she was sitting in a nest; he didn't even have a nest to sit in. He tilted his head to convey his confusion.

Kuroko rubbed her temples and sighed. "Never mind, just forget it," She said, "It's not like I'm not used to being a burden to others or anything…"

Burden. That was an interesting word. It wasn't too common in the raven's experience and in most cases in which it was used it was in reference to a physical burden. This made him wonder in what situations a person could be a burden. Did other people need to carry her? The girl in front of him was so small compared to other people that the raven had seen that, even were this the case, it would hardly be an issue. But despite the fact that he was still confused he felt like the girl wanted him to respond. "The straw that broke the camel's back," he said after sorting through his limited vocabulary to find a phrase that made sense. When people spoke about burdens this was what they tended to say. He didn't really know what it meant; he had never seen a camel before nor the back of one.

Kuroko looked at this pitch black bird in front of her. Then she smiled and laughed. She laughed for a solid minute until it finally petered away. The raven had inched closer to her in this time and was looking at her with his head cocked again. She reached out with her hand and stroked the bird. She knew a little about ravens, she knew that they were extremely intelligent birds but also quite aggressive, normally she never would have done something like this and risk being attacked by it. But she had just seen something that made her realize that something like that didn't really matter.

"Fortune is guiding our affairs better than we ourselves could have wished," she began, "Do you see over yonder, friend Sancho, thirty or forty hulking giants? I intend to do battle with them and slay them." She pointed to the horizon. But all there were for as far as the eye could see were several buildings and one of the city's numerous wind farms.

_What in the world are you talking about Shiro? What giants?_

The raven looked similarly perplexed.

"Those you see over there," replied the girl now pointing directly at the wind turbines, "with their long arms. Some of them have arms well-nigh two leagues in length."

Kuro recognized the line now. It was from one of Shiro's favorite books growing up, Don Quixote. It had been a long time since she had last read it so she was still quite confused as to what the point of randomly spouting out lines from the book could possibly be? Why wasn't Shiro upset now like she had been just a minute ago? _What's the matter Shiro? Why do you suddenly bring this up?_

The raven had, at this point, concluded that this girl was quite insane. It didn't really matter, all things considered, and the stroking was quite nice, so despite the fact that he was perched next to a nutjob, he simply stood there and continued listening to her deluded rantings.

"All this week," Kuroko began, grabbing the emblem she had received the other day from the ninjas from her bag, "All this week I have been doubting my sanity. I wasn't sure if what I was experiencing was nothing more than a hallucination and it scared me so much. It scared me because I was happy. But now I'm not, now it hurts. And that is the reason why I can now fully accept the fact that I am insane." She tied the emblem around her shoulder, a symbol of her fragile grip on reality.

"After all," she continued, "I am sitting next to a talking bird speaking with a little voice in my head holding something that I got from ninjas after attempting to steal a device made by a childhood friend that disables ESPers which was held by a crime family using something I got from another crime family. What about my situation is believable in the slightest? My whole life seems like a work of fiction now that I look back on it. Just another novel about a poor, deluded knight."

_So you're just going to sit back and accept this? You're going to resign yourself to insanity?_

Kuroko shrugged, "not really, but now I know exactly what to do next," she said teleporting to the base of a close by windmill, she put her armored gloves on as she continued talking, "as I see it either I am an inconvenience to the entire world or the entire world is just a hallucination, meaning anything I do doesn't matter and I can do what I want. That makes my course of action simple. I need to do things to ensure that I am not considered a burden. Seeing as I'm in Judgment the easiest way to do this would be going around and doing my best work. If it turns out that I am indeed insane then all I'll actually. Be doing. Is. Punch. Ing. Wind .Mills ." She said, hitting the solid metal base of the turbine hard with each syllable as the blades whipped by behind her. The gloves, specially designed for both combat and infiltration, easily dispersed the hit keeping her knuckles unhurt and intact, "and that doesn't do harm to anyone and will simply keep me occupied. It's a win-win."

Anyone else would have seen these words as sign of a complete and utter mental break, but Kuro knew better. She felt the pain and grief that still coursed through her. She knew that this was a simple defense mechanism to dull the pain as much as possible and more importantly keep herself from slipping into the depression that Kuro had been worrying about.

After all, allowing herself to slip into that depression would be equal to giving up. Shiro hated giving up. But if she was really truly fighting giants then it was futile to do anything but to give up.

If she was fighting windmills, however, then even giving up would be futile. What would be the point of going into a state of depression over something that existed only in your head?

Kuroko teleported back to the roof of the building she had been on. The raven was still perched there looking slightly perturbed by her teleportations. "Don Quixote might have been crazy but he was still valiant and brave. He was the most admirable person in the entire story; I don't care if he was made fun of. He was an insane knight but at least he was a damn good one, better than I ever was."

It was an… acceptable reaction for Kuro. Much better than what she had predicted, much more stable. She decided that it would be best to encourage this until Shiro had calmed down. _That makes sense I suppose. What exactly are you going to do then? Wander around and look for people in trouble?_

"Nope, far too unreliable. I'm hallucinating all of this so why should I have to deal with inconveniences like that?" She said as she unzipped her sports bag and began putting on the armor that lay within, "like this armor. It certainly saves me from getting so many injuries… how convenient ne?" It was so obvious to her now all the little things that should have tipped her off to her growing mental instability. Of course this was overlooking all the things she had had to do to get into a place where getting the armor was even a remote possibility which, though involving a lot of luck, was far from pure coincidence.

_So what are you going to do instead?_

Once she finished putting the full suit, minus helmet, on, she pulled on the sweatpants and sweatshirt that were also in the sports bag to cover up the otherwise quite visible armor. Then she got her cellphone out of her bag. "I'm going to get someone to do the looking for me of course," she said as she dialed the number she had seen on the sign the other day.

* * *

After two rings a familiar voice picked up the other end of the line, "Ah, hello Kuroko. How can I help you on this fine day?"

"Hello Riko," she said, "I have a little proposal for you and I was wondering if you would be interested."

"Oh?" Riko responded, curious. The little girl was turning out to be far more interesting than he had first expected of her. He had heard about her exploits over the past couple of days and was quite keen to see what she was planning now.

"I'd like to hire you to provide support and information as I go around and do my job as a Judgment agent," the (assumedly) crazy little girl said, "I will pay you quite well for your time."

"What exactly do you mean by 'support and information'," Riko asked.

"Simply put I want you to tell me where I can find criminals so I can go and arrest them."

Riko smiled widely as he heard this. He had expected something entertaining but this… this was better than he could have hoped for. He knew about this little teleporter's potential, he knew that she could easily take out a warehouse full of criminals with nothing more than needles and a few calculations. Now she was allowing him to man the steering wheel of the weapon in human skin that was the powerful young Judgment agent.

"Can you do this?" Kuroko continued, "And even more importantly, can I trust you to do this?"

"Of course I can do it," Riko replied. Ever since he had spread his spiders web of informants and hacked into the city's security systems six months ago very few things in this district, District 7, could go on without him knowing about it and with his advanced software he could quickly scan huge portions of the city for activity, or a specific person, in a very short amount of time. He knew about almost all of the illegal goings on around the district and had accrued quite the index of criminals and crimes that were unknown to Judgment or Anti-Skill and thus had never faced justice for their actions. He could easily guide the teleporter to any current crimes that were happening, and when there weren't any of those to report he could just as easily guide her to one of these criminals who had committed crimes but hadn't yet faced justice for them, "I can do you one better in fact. I can even help gather all the evidence of their activities so they can actually get convicted."

The overeager Judgment agent was glad Riko had thought of that last bit. She had overlooked the fact that, without evidence, any arrest would be void and she would instead get in trouble for assault and police brutality. "But can I trust you to do this? Can I trust you to guide me towards people who are actually criminals instead of profession rivals or personal enemies?"

"I understand your concern but I can assure you that I can, indeed, be trusted in this respect. I have no professional rivals who can match my ability and I don't consider anyone in this city worthy of being my enemy. Even if I did have a disgruntled customer that I wanted to get rid of, considering my job and thus their reason for visiting me, doesn't that mean that they are still criminals? My customers generally deserve to be arrested for some reason or another," Riko reasoned. Not that he would be guiding her to any of his customers, a group comprised mostly of the more organized criminals. That was bad business. No, he would guide her to criminals that he knew about but had no direct connection to, like Skill-Out.

Leading her to the hideouts of Skill-Out had another advantage. It was a surprisingly difficult organization to infiltrate and spy on so Riko had surprisingly little information on them. If he could direct her to some of their hideouts then he could hack into their systems using the wireless accessing abilities of the Gaokerena. Really this little deal did nothing but benefit him and keep him entertained while doing so.

"You're saying this to one of your customers you know," Kuroko reminded him.

"I did say generally," he responded slyly.

"So how much is this going to cost and how are you going to get the evidence to me?" Kuroko asked, changing the subject.

While he recognized that this was a magnificent opportunity to exploit the rich little girl for a considerable sum of money, Riko just smiled and said, "I'll do it for free." He didn't care about money. He had more than enough and he hardly even tried. In addition to his lucrative information brokering business he was also the single most successful software designer in the city, and that was without even releasing most of what he had created. "and as for the evidence, do you still have the Gaokerena? The little device I gave you when you went off to hunt down the bounty hunter?"

Kuroko sat down and fished around in her bag until she found the hockey puck-like device. "Yeah I do."

"We can keep in contact with that, it's easier and more secure than a cell phone. It can link up to a headset if you happen to have one handy as well." Kuroko got out the headset that went with her cell phone and put it in her ear and Riko did the rest, "It also has a USB slot on the opposite side of the switch. If you plug a flash drive into that I can transmit the data into that and you can simply give it to Anti-Skill or leave it behind."

Kuroko considered it for a while. While she was fairly certain that Riko was a hallucination she wasn't sure that Anti-Skill was. She didn't really want to deal with real people at the moment so the ability to leave behind everything that Anti-skill would need for evidence without having to deal with the people themselves was quite welcome. 'So I'll need flash drives and a lot of handcuffs…' she thought. The first could be purchased at any number of stores around the area, quite easy to get. The second, surprisingly, would be just as easy to obtain. Branch 177 had actually recently received a surplus supply of handcuffs, plenty enough for the teleporter's need. Another convenient coincidence…

* * *

Once again it was not actually a coincidence though. It had been Kuroko who had ordered the handcuffs a few days ago, after being told to by Konori. She had been quite sleep-deprived at the time and had accidently added an additional 0 at the end of the number requested, turning the order of 30 into an order of 300. Since the rest of the process was handled by computers this mistake had not been noticed by anyone else until the order arrived in 3 large boxes instead of the standard 1 medium one.

So she went off and purchased a few flash drives then went to the offices. She stopped several buildings over from Branch 177's headquarters and put on her sunglasses. She switched between the various features until finally she found what she was looking for. She pressed the button and suddenly several dots were highlighted on the map on her HUD. The dots represented each of her friends, as well as Konori and the dorm mistress.

The reason for this could be attributed to her concern for the safety of her friends. She cared deeply about Saten, Uiharu, and of course her Onee-sama. So when she had received the sunglasses and the tracking devices that had come with them she didn't even give it a second thought before planting them on her friends so that she could be sure to find them in case of an emergency. The tracker on Konori and the dorm mistress had more to do with concern over her own safety and well-being. She did not want to serve any more detentions after all.

Today these dots served the additional function of letting her avoid all of these people for a while. she wanted to see any of them right now, not until she was sure they wouldn't consider her a burden any more.

She saw that Konori was out on patrol and Uiharu was back home (oddly enough Saten was with her as well). She then scanned the building with her T-ray scanner to be sure that there were no other people in the office. Seeing none she teleported inside to the storage room where the extra cuffs had been stored. She began loading them up into her sports bag. Once it was filled she zipped it up and hefted it onto her back. Then she teleported the remaining handcuffs, including the ones in the other boxes, to one of her safe-spots that was within 92.1 meters of Judgment headquarters.

* * *

"Are you ready to begin?" Riko asked once the teleporter had reappeared on the street. Riko had moved from his main desk to his surveillance room and was running his searches through a specialized set of criteria that would best locate any disturbances. From here he could lead her to any ongoing crimes or any high risk sites.

It was a common complaint that Judgment agents never arrived on time. They didn't have the resources. Precognition was too unreliable for those kinds of things, and Judgment's other monitoring resources were quite insufficient. But Riko's resources were anything but insufficient and with Kuroko's teleportation ability she could respond seconds after a crime was being committed, or even before the crime was committed.

Riko was so excited about this that he was already planning on how to spin the events of the time to come. After all, half the fun of having information was controlling how it went out. It was why he was the creator and administrator of so many urban legend websites. He loved leaking just a small piece of information and seeing how it morphed and mutated by the time it reached the public. This would be great legend fodder, all he needed was something flashy, something big, something that would be great to test the hapless little girl's mettle. And he had just the thing for her.

"I'm ready," Kuroko said with an odd mix of determination and disregard in her voice.

"Good, I have just the thing for you. If you hurry you can get there before anyone gets hurt," Riko told her, and in his head he added, 'We'll just see if you can avoid getting hurt. Don't let me down my little teleporting mad girl and I will help you be as a scourge to this city. Scourge… that has a nice ring to it…' Riko grinned as he directed her towards her first herculean labor.

* * *

In the middle of a deserted road 24 teenage boys were gathered in 2 groups of 12. Each person wore a colored fabric bandana tied in various places on their bodies. Both groups had their own color, one being a dark red with long horizontal stripes of orange and gold. The other group had cool blue bandanas with circles of white. Each of the boys wore the same uniform constructed of a specially made fabric that was non-flammable and did not transfer heat well. They were all from the same school, the Thermodynamic Manipulator's Academy for Development, a simple school that specialized in thermokineticists, including pyro- and cryo-kineticists. These groups happened to have heavy rivalry amongst themselves dating back to the foundation of the school and they often had minor scuffles. But this time there had been an inexcusable crime committed and this "scuffle" was to the death between these two gangs.

"I'm surprised you hotheads showed up," the leader of the cryokineticists known by his men as Absolute Zero said. He was a gaudy looking man whose pride in his power was over-the-top. It had caused him to dye his hair pure white, wear a thick winter coat over his school outfit despite it being the middle of summer, and speak only in a voice that he considered suitably "icy".

"A bunch of zeros like you aint gonna scare us," the leader of the pyrokineticists said. While he did actually use his given name, Calvin, he was just as pointlessly prideful of his power. He had, as well, dyed his hair a fiery mix of red, orange and yellow. "We are going to finish you off for good today."

Suddenly a voice announced from down the street on which the gangs stood, "I am Judgment. Disperse immediately and peacefully or I shall be forced to arrest you." Down the street stood a little girl no more than 12 or 13 years old. She wore a sweat-suit and sunglasses and she had a Judgment armband around her shoulder.

Zero and Calvin looked at each other. They hated each other more than anything but that didn't mean that they couldn't agree on anything. They agreed that interrupting someone's fight was exceptionally rude. They could kill each other in a minute, after they dealt with this girl.

Calvin immediately launched a fireball at her while Zero fired a pointed spike of solid ice. The girl stood there calmly as the projectiles headed towards her. Only when the fireball was almost upon her did she move, simply raising her hand, tilting it upwards slightly, to intercept the missile. The fireball hit and sent fire spraying in a fan over her head, not hurting the girl at all. Then she leaned ever so slightly to the left, dodging the icicle effortlessly.

"Illegal use of ESPer ability, assaulting an officer of the law," she listed, and at that moment the icicle she had dodged crashed into a window of the building behind her. "Vandalism," she added casually. Kuro had told her that she needed to make sure they had committed crimes before she arrested them so she was doing so, a task that was proving to be exceptionally easy.

The cocky little girl was getting on Zero's nerves; she was as cocky as the damn pyrokineticists he hated so much. So she could dodge one little icicle, 'let's see if she can dodge this,' he thought as he pulled a sawed off shotgun from his coat and pointed it at the girl. 'One shot for her one for that hothead.'

Then suddenly the girl disappeared only to reappear the same instant standing to the side of him, hand on the barrel of his gun, "Illegal possession of firearm," she said calmly and suddenly the shotgun disappeared as well embedding itself into the ground, completely ruined and inoperable. 'Teleporter!' Zero managed to think before she hit him in a nerve cluster on his neck and sent him to the ground.

Calvin was happy about this for two reasons. The first was that the teleporter had taken care of his opponent for him and the second was that, in doing so, she had opened herself up. He drew a sword with a gasoline soaked blade from his belt, lighting the blade on the way so that it was wreathed in flame.

He raised the blade high above his head and swung it down. But Kuroko was not so stupid or inexperienced to disregard an enemy just because they were not in her line of sight. She easily heard the sword being pulled out of the sheath and sidestepped the sword-swing, letting the blade brush past her armored glove on the way down allowing one of the gloves numerous features, small carbon micro-blades nestled in the gaps between her fingers deployable from the finger pads, to destroy the katana and send the blade clattering, in pieces, to the ground. The material of the gauntlet also, as demonstrated before, was heavily insulated allowing her to block the heat of the flame, preventing it from harming her.

The swing unbalanced him, sending his weight forward and, without anything to hit, down. Kuroko was easily able to complete his rotation and flip him over onto the ground on his back at high speed.

Seeing their leaders taken out by this little girl the remaining members of the two sides drew their weapons and fired up their powers, ready to destroy this little Judgment girl. One member drew the handgun that he had brought and pointed it at the girl. It was 22 against one, and they had her surround-… why was his pistol now nailed to his holster?

Ever since Friday Kuroko had learned her lesson to immediately disable any firearm before it could even be pulled against her. One of the first uses of T-rays were body scanners in airports designed specifically to look for firearms or other weapons so the utilization of her visor's scanner for that purpose was extremely simple and efficient. Kuroko had also learned, a long time ago, that being surrounded was a very bad idea. She had also learned that a teleporter never needed to be surrounded if they didn't choose to be.

She teleported behind and above the man with the now-useless weapon and delivered a kick to the back of his head knocking him unconscious.

The next group of three launched fireballs at her, but she easily dodged them. Her infrared scanner, which was what she was using right now, gave away the telltale signs of the fireball's trajectory before they even launched allowing her to weave effortlessly through the flames until she reached melee range. Now the group of three surrounded the girl and began trying to attack her all at once. A simple circular dodge sent her spinning around to behind one of them where a simple push sent him crashing into the attacks of the other two, knocking the wind out of him and sending him to his back. Then the Judgment girl teleported above the other two, hanging in the air upside down. She grabbed their heads and knocked them together using her ever-increasing downward momentum to send them to the ground on top of the other one, preventing him from getting up and moving them out of the way just in time to avoid an otherwise lethal barrage of icicles from the other gang.

However she would need to ignore this for now. The flames traveled five times faster than the icicles with the same amount of time for a warning so they were the greater danger. Seeing as most of the members of the flame gang were now rushing at her she teleported in front of the lead one and swiped his legs out from under him, sending him tumbling to the ground where a few well-placed needles ensured he stayed.

Then she teleported to the very back of the pack, just in front and to the side of the last charging gangster. She struck him in the stomach, his own momentum adding to the power of the blow. He too went down. In his last moments of consciousness he could swear that he heard the screeching of a bird before his vision faded to black.

It continued on like this as she dealt with each member of the gangs one by one swiftly, safely, and efficiently. The only times they touched her were their faces touched her fist or the one time when a member of the ice gang managed to grab hold of her. She had used him as a weapon. She teleported him upside down over another member of the gang who was charging the apparently helpless girl with a baseball bat, much like the time she had used Uiharu for the same purpose against her Onee-sama, though that was more of a distraction than an attempt to hurt, she hadn't even meant to do it that time.

Finally all 24 of the criminals lay immobile on the ground. Kuroko, having used as little energy throughout the fight as possible, was still perfectly fine and hardly tired at all as she went over to the place she had dropped off her sports bags and brought it over to the location where the fight had taken place. She retrieved the handcuffs from the bag and walked around, cuffing each and every criminal. When she was finished she zipped the bag back up, plugged one of the flash drives (already labeled "Evidence") into the Gaokerena, attached it to the leader, and pressed the button on the front of the handcuffs. This button was used to summon Anti-Skill to the location of an arrest if contact cannot otherwise be made. It also summoned security robots to watch over the criminals until Anti-Skill arrived. Now that this conflict done with, she teleported away to continue on her Windmill Crusade.

* * *

Back in his headquarters Riko grinned like a mad man as he began uploading the video of the fight which he had gotten from a nearby camera. He had high expectations of the little teleporter and knew just how strong she was. The only reason he had leaked her location to the Honoguns was because he knew that she could handle them. Still even he had not expected that fight to go so perfectly, so smoothly, so entertainingly. He had thought that he would need to alter the video but it was perfect as it was for his purposes. Now all he needed was her to stop a few more crimes, even small ones and he could begin the process. And wouldn't you know it, another interesting one just popped up.

"217 meters 17 degrees, one target, immediate danger, better hurry," he told the girl with the voice of a man ordering a tactical airstrike.

* * *

"So, bitch," a tall boy said to a girl who was backed against a wall. The man held a small knife like blade, formed by his ability, which he was threatening the girl with, "you really think you can just break up with me and I'm going to let that go? No way, you ruined my life, now I'm gonna repay you in kind." He said as he drew his arm back and stabbed. The girl flinched, waiting for the end. But after a second she felt nothing, she opened her eye to see another girl standing in front of her. The girl was an inch or two shorter than her and was wearing a Judgment armband on her shoulder. The blade was sticking through her shoulder like a ghost, not disturbing the fabric of her sweat-suit at all despite the fact that it was clearly sticking through it and the tip was soaked in the girl's blood as a result of the boy's ability to create a blade which could bypass non-organic material and affect only cells.

It was unexpected and quite painful but Kuroko pushed the pain aside. She grabbed his wrist pulling outwards as she drew herself back away from the blade. Then, still holding onto his wrist, she ducked pulled and flipped him over in a basic judo throw. After that she quickly cuffed him.

She looked up at the girl she had just rescued and asked, "are you okay?"

"Um… yeah I am. Thanks to you," she responded with a slight blush. Her heart was beating quickly in her chest, and it wasn't from fear anymore.

"You should probably get back home now. Do you live close by, would you like me to escort you?" Kuroko asked as standard procedure as she got the flash drive of video evidence and deposited it on top of him.

"Y-yes, quite close. I just came from home, it's just 5 streets over, number 1554. If you would please walk me back, I would feel much safer." She said.

Kuroko pressed the button on the cuffs then held her hand out to the blushing girl. The girl took it shyly and suddenly found herself in front of her house. The Judgment agent nodded to her and wished her a good day.

'So cool…' she thought as she watched the girl disappear, 'kind of cute too…' Then she realized that she had never asked for the girl's name, causing her to frown unhappily at the missed opportunity.

* * *

For the next several hours Kuroko continued to teleport around District 7 based on the information she was given by Riko. Several times she arrived to crimes in progress or even before occurrence, allowing her to protect the victims from getting hurt in the first place. Other times she was directed to criminal dens, including the storage facility for an arms dealer and a drug dealer. Other times she was directed to the lairs of gangs like Skill-Out.

Of course this left Anti-skill with a hell of a job to do. For the first hour and a half the streets had been blaring with Anti-Skill sirens as they chased the trail of cuffed criminals that the teleporter was leaving behind, after that they decided to turn the sirens off as the constant blaring was alarming the citizens without any real emergency. After all, the criminals were wrapped up like presents already and the evidence was apparently pre-prepared.

The only problem was that there was often three or four alerts going on at once. At first they thought it was a computer error or a prank, but at each site they checked out there was indeed a criminal, or even a group of criminals, arrested. So they were obliged to check each and every one of the alerts, even calling on help from out of the district simply to make the arrests and check out piece after piece of evidence.

Anti-Skill agent Aiho was understandably frustrated by the state of affairs. She was going to have a hell of a lot of overtime because of this.

She knew whose fault it was too. Each pair of Judgment handcuffs came with an electronic signature stating which branch it was issued to. All of the cuffs had been from Branch 177 leaving her pretty sure that the teleporter was behind this.

The teleporter had always been good at her job. She was the most consistently successful Judgment agent there had ever been. But this was ridiculous, and more than a little suspicious. How could she do this so quickly, so efficiently? Even Anti-Skill couldn't keep up with her and they had far more resources than Judgment, she wasn't even waiting at the scene of the crime to give her report. And the evidence, all left behind on a flash drive, was suspicious as well. How did she gather it and was it valid? So far it had proven consistent with other sources of evidence, like fingerprint evidence and the security videos but it was still a little too perfect to be unquestioned.

Aiho would need to have words with the girl when they finally caught up with her.

* * *

Of course they never did catch up with her. The sun had set by the time Riko was finished for the day, and therefore when Kuroko was finished. He told her that he would get in touch with her the next morning at sunrise.

She decided to get some rest as well. She teleported to her safe house below the city and curled up with the sleeping bag that she had stored there a while ago. It had been a long time since she had fallen asleep alone. It had been a longer time since she had had to stay here. The dark pocket of earth was her last bastion; she usually slept here when she was afraid to sleep anywhere else. She knew she was safe here. But this time the cause of her stay was not because it was safe here, but rather, not for the first time either, because this was the only place she felt she belonged.

It was a lonely place of darkness deep within the bowels of the earth where no one had been for many years.

It fit her well…

* * *

Author's Note: Angst is boring to read. I like a good drama every now and again but it is never fun to listen to a character whining on and on about their problems. I believe the key to making drama bearable is to tell of a character's issues without having the character themselves talk about them at all, or at least having them react as if they don't care. An example I can think of is in the anime Hayate no Gotoku. He had a very rough childhood full of parental issues, but whenever he brings up his past it is as an offhand comment, more like he was describing the weather instead of the horrible abuse he suffered.

One of the most common tips for a writer is "show don't tell". If the character is the one whining about their past then you are telling, even worse you are telling about someone else's problem and ordering them, in a sense, to feel sorry for the character, which a lot of people will greatly resent. But if you present it in a neutral manner and let the audience choose how they want to react to it then you are simply showing the way things are, which makes for a far more bearable reading experience.

Oh, and it might be obvious but the raven's reactions aren't its actual reactions to what is going on. They aren't the thoughts that are actually going through the raven's mind, for the obvious reason.

* * *

Dedications: I'd like to dedicate this chapter to another faithful reviewer, the only person who has left a review for almost every single chapter: LadyPoisonDreams. Your reviews are enjoyable to read and quite thorough, I like hearing what parts of my chapters people enjoy and don't enjoy so I really appreciate it.

* * *

Coming soon: Knight takes Bishop, the introduction of the shepherd.


	35. Toaru Kokoro no Bubun

**Important note: It has only happened once before so know that ****underline ****is much like italics except it means that Shiro is speaking to Kuro but not with speech. It's the difference between Kuro speaking with just italics and Kuro speaking with quotation marks and italics. The latter can be heard by other people the former cannot.**

* * *

Toaru Kokoro no Bubun

A Certain Piece of Mind

* * *

Kuroko found herself a white specter bound by the pure black chains dangling from the executioner's axe that was embedded in the middle of the dais on which she sat. surrounding the dais was a massive expanse of land, flat and vast as the eye could see. From this infinite flat plain jutted massive spires of ivory, rising as towers each of different size. The greater the distance the more ruined the towers became but the majority were pristine. In each tower was embedded a massive clock face set to different times and ticking at different rates. Some had second and minute hands whizzing by at a surprising speed, others crawled along, still many others were entirely motionless. Some clocks were obscured by more chains, some white, some black, some a mix of the two, that wound up and wrapped around the stony spires upon which they were set.

She looked behind her to see another specter, identical to her except of the inverse color, similarly bound by white chains attached to the same axe. The black, shadowy presence was staring at her as well. Though the motion was almost invisible she saw it open its mouth to speak. _It has been a difficult day, but it is good to see that you are still fighting for yourself ._Kuro said to her, this realm granting her a perceivable outline.

Shiro smiled a smile of comfort without knowing who it was for. It was not as difficult as I had thought it would be. And I believe that I made considerable progress in my quest to be less of a burden. I think I've done some real good today.

_Remember that you must look after yourself. You still haven't patched up that stab wound and your fatigue is building. You have just come out of Hell, while that aided in your recovery it still means that you should rest._

Every moment I rest is one less moment I can be proving that I'm worthy of my Onee-sama. I want to be back with her as soon as possible even if my body breaks apart in the process.

A Shiro in her right mind would have seen how faulty this logic was, but this Shiro was in a state of mind where she was refusing all logic and mental stability in exchange for emotional stability and the strength to go on past the pain. If Kuro tried to get her back in a reasonable state of mind she knew it would destroy her. So all she could say was, _You must ensure that there is a person to forgive, a living, preferably unhurt person._

I know I know. I'm resting now aren't I?

Kuro sighed and pointed to the horizon. Climbing up the sky was a wall of black thorns dripping a tainted black ooze, looking like the most menacing storm possible. These were the remnants of the Queen incident, they were what the voice had left behind.

Rather they were the visual representation of what was actually going on. This world was a world entirely thought up by Shiro, constructed during her martial arts training as a place of meditation. It was how she represented her mind and the things that filled it. The towers represented her memories, the more pristine the better remembered. Kuroko was a hoarder of memories, had been for years. She claimed that she did not cling to the past but in her desperate attempt to avoid the past, repress it, and lock it away, she had accidently made them stronger. Now the very memories she had tried to push far away could haunt her forever, perfectly preserved and sealed safely within these ivory towers.

In this world of mind and symbols the thorns were a representation of the effects that the incident with the Queen had had on the teleporter. The Queen's power was to physically alter the brain of her victims. She would either psychically change the neural pathways of the hippocampus in order to alter the memories of the victim or adjust the levels of certain chemicals secreted by the brain controlling their emotions in order to influence their actions. Normally this process was quite clean with almost no residual damage, after all the Queen was a level 5. However Kuroko's strong resistance to the process in addition to the neural reshuffling that had happened afterwards as a byproduct had caused the process to inflict lasting harm, creating a chemical imbalance in her brain.

This chemical imbalance manifested itself as a state of depression that Kuroko had been struggling with the past few weeks. This depression, along with the hard-to-escape nightmares that she had been having, had been the cause of her recent insomnia and also her poor eating habits. Depression also caused, in rare cases, hallucinations and delusions along with numerous other problems that had been inflicting her as of late.

Kuro had suggested getting checked out by a psychologist or at least getting some over-the-counter antidepressants, which would have quickly solved the issue, but Shiro had been steadfastly against it, not willing to risk losing Kuro simply to be rid of this feeling that she was sure she could fight against. Even though Shiro did not, as some did, see taking pills as a defeat or resignation, she was not going to take them as long as she was even slightly unsure of whether or nor Kuro could make it through.

_You have maybe half an hour's worth of rest before your body itself forces you awake. _Kuro said, finishing her though.

How annoying, Shiro sighed, The nightmares don't even scare me anymore and yet my body still shakes me awake and doesn't let me get to sleep.

Interesting… _ The nightmares do not scare you?_

At first they did, at first the thought of my Onee-sama disappearing from my grasp into the arms of another were so terrifying I couldn't even sleep alone, I still can't get any decent sleep without knowing she's right there. But now I simply convince myself that she does deserve better than me. I'm still sad to see her go but I know that she's happy, so it doesn't scare me anymore.

Kuro had never seen one of her nightmares so did not know the contents, but she had suspected something like this.

Meditation is still easier though, Shiro continued, Just as restful as sleep but without the problem of nightmares. She looked over the vast plain and all the clock towers that projected from the ground. She rested her gaze upon one of them which was quite close by, the spinning of the hands had just recently stopped and were currently resting at 3:17. While I'm here though I might as well go back to some happy times though. She said as the doors of the tower flew open and the tower drew closer at an alarming rate until finally the entire dais upon which she sat was swallowed into the threshold and the doors slammed shut behind her.

Within the hollow tower the walls which seemed to stretch upwards to infinity were covered in even more clocks every one of them either frozen upon a certain time or wildly oscillating between two points as if unsure which time they should display. Each of these clocks had a series of numbers in a plaque underneath them, a date. This particular clock tower represented all of her memories with her dear Onee-sama and each of the clocks represented an individual memory that she had of her.

* * *

Kuroko smiled at the number of memories and the emotion they held. She reached out and touched the first clock. The plaque on this one had the earliest date of them all. When she touched it she found herself back in her body of several months ago. She could feel the pain of recent injuries. She smelled the smell of sulfur and smoke, tasted the blood and acrid sulfurous air. She could hear a blaring alarm and her own heart beating in her ears.

What she saw in front of her was the bank that had been almost robbed recently, the one where she had gotten shot. It was also the bank where, several months ago, she, Konori, and Uiharu had all almost been killed because of her stupidity.

She watched as the robber threw several silver ball bearings as he gloated about his ability. She felt the fear that was now coursing through her younger self, though she was not afraid. She was not afraid because…

Suddenly a stream of light shot through the security door catching each of the bearings in its beam and vaporizing them like they were nothing but rice paper being thrown into an inferno.

* * *

At the time she had not known what it had been but she had gratefully used the opportunity to take down the criminal. It wasn't until a few months later, when she had seen her Onee-sama fire her rail gun up close for the first time that she had made the connection. And even though they had not gotten off on the best foot, after several hours of consideration, judging the facts and examining her feelings, she had decided that she would love this girl regardless of her somewhat-irritating little… eccentricities.

To others this would seem like an utterly illogical leap and for a normal person it would be. But as Kuroko saw it it made perfect sense. Up until that day at the bank Shiro had been completely independent, never having to rely on another person for anything. Kuro was the only one she would ever ask for help from. People relied on her, people were protected by her, that was how things worked. It had been so long since someone had genuinely cared for her that she had almost forgotten that other people would share her burden. But even if they would share it, her burden was great, far too much anyone other than her to handle.

That was what she had thought at least.

When she had been saved by someone else and had found out who that person was she saw that she herself was fallible, capable of making mistakes and capable of getting hurt. And for the first time in her life someone had actually helped her without any other reason than she was in trouble. She had found someone stronger than herself, much stronger, strong enough to rely on, to depend on, to be able to trust without fear of getting hurt by that trust.

Of course not even this paragon was perfect. She had numerous flaws that, until now, had annoyed Kuroko considerably. Chief among these flaws was the electro-master's glaring immaturity that made the adulthood that the teleporter so longed for look so far away from her. But now she saw these very flaws as an opportunity. If she was flawed then Kuroko could help her overcome these flaws and justify her presence and her place in the relationship.

Had her Onee-sama been absolutely perfect than the younger girl may have idolized her but she never would have loved Misaka, too worried that she would have been nothing but a hassle to the other girl, a burden, an inconvenience. This was what was happening now in fact. Her Onee-sama was improving upon her flaws even as Kuroko's confidence levels were plummeting, leaving her with the idea that her Onee-sama was perfect and she was worthless.

The whole idea of love had been as an aftereffect of this decision to enter a relationship of some kind with this girl who had saved her life. Kuroko's fairly recent, but quickly blossoming, desire for an adult relationship (which, now that she had a job and was otherwise a completely independent and mature girl, she saw as the last step to achieving adulthood) had convinced her that there would be no better candidate for the position of her girlfriend than the electro-master.

And the plan had worked out magnificently, much better than expected. She had had so many happy times with her Onee-sama. Even just thinking about the older girl's smile made her happy. Everything was great.

* * *

Kuro narrowed her eyes and reached up to touch another plaque, adjusting the clock slightly beforehand to access only a certain part of the memory. This memory was far less pleasant, it was the memory of one of her harsh punishments at the hands of her Onee-sama, her very first one back when she had just moved into her future girlfriend's room with her.

She felt once again the blinding pain as enough electricity to kill a normal person coursed through her. Back then the enthralled little dove was not accustomed to the harsh shocks and the temperamental swan was not accustomed to holding back, she still wasn't. Had Kuroko not been as hardy as she had become after her years and years of body training, there was actually a high chance that she could have died. As it was it had paralyzed her arm, numbed her entire body (though that may have been a blessing considering the fact that the dorm mistress stormed into the room the next second and snapped her neck as a consequence), and disturbed the rhythm of her heart causing severe Atrial fibrillation for the next two days until she had gone to the hospital to get it fixed.

_I am not trying to quash your happiness Shiro, _Kuro said, making her point, _But I am trying to get you to understand that you should not place your happiness so much on another person._

What would you know about happiness? Shiro shot back caustically

_What would you?_

Shiro sighed. She could actually see Kuro's point here. Still… Better unhealthy happiness than none at all right?

_But being alive and unhurt is more important than being happy. You need to learn which risks to take for your happiness and which risks are not worth it._

Reviewing happy memories can't hurt me physically, even if pain is involved so I see no reason why this is a bad thing.

_Very well then, carry on. I will not disturb you further._

Kuroko nodded then began sifting through the memories to all the happy times she had shared with her Onee-sama for the next 23 minutes until she was woken from her meditative state, jolting upright in the sleeping bag that she kept down here in her safe house.

* * *

She sighed, disappointed that the end of her happy reminiscing had come so soon. Despite that she was ready to get back to her "work" as soon as possible, knowing that going back to sleep was futile. So she stood up and readied her suit for more combat. Since she didn't have Riko to guide her at the moment, she would need to monitor Anti-Skill communication in order to figure out where she was going. If this was the case then the calls would likely be more severe than what she had had to deal with so far and quite possibly in another district. Kuroko had been finding teleportation easier nowadays so even teleporting across the city wouldn't drain her too much if such an act was necessary.

Since it was night she decided not to wear anything on top of her stealth-suit and also put her helmet on. She simply turned it onto its shadow sneak function which would allow her to meld seamlessly with the shadows and remain virtually undetectable. Of course this meant she couldn't bring along her bag of handcuffs but that wasn't really a problem considering that she would now be responding to crimes that Anti-Skill was already trying to deal with and that would mean Anti-Skill would be right there to arrest the criminals.

So Kuroko teleported upwards, out of her safe house where, not surprisingly, it was impossible to get a signal. She teleported on top of a nearby building and began working through the various functions of her suit to access the radio scanner. As she began to do so she heard the soft caw of a bird perched beside her, a midnight black raven almost invisible in the shadows of the night.

"Hello Prometheus," she said to the little hallucination of a raven that was perched beside her, the suit altering her voice, purging it of any audial signature which could be used to identify her by voice alone. She did not quite know why she chose that name for the bird, but it just felt right, and since it was a hallucination anyway it hardly mattered.

"Kuro," the jet black bird responded.

"Kuroko," the teleporter corrected, "Kuroko Shirai." She could have sworn she heard the raven sigh but any noise was quickly drowned out by the static of the now functioning radio as she managed to tune into the Anti-Skill dispatch for the city.

She sat down and listened for thirty minutes without any activity save for a speeder or two until an emergency call came through. Apparently one of the city's numerous anti-science groups had managed to break into one of the nuclear laboratories in district 10. They had several hostages and were threatening to cause a meltdown in the laboratories reactors if their demands were not met. Though such an feat was impossible, the laboratories reactor wasn't the same as a power plants reactor, and would cause no damage to the city even if accomplished, the hostages they held meant that the situation would need to be treated with extreme care.

It was the perfect task for a teleporter like herself, so she immediately set off in the direction of the call and was there in a little under a minute.

* * *

A man squatted near a small window in the entrance of the nuclear laboratory they had managed to capture. He was keeping an eye out for any moment from Anti-Skill as one of his comrades kept his gun trained on a few of the hostages that they had taken and another patrolled back and forth in the dark room, the electricity to the building having been turned off a while ago. Despite having a nuclear reactor it seemed that it wasn't used for backup power and they were still stuck in the dark.

It had been several minutes since they had delivered their demands and they had not made any contact since then despite Anti-Skill efforts to negotiate. It wouldn't be too long before this city was bowing at their feet and all this God-abhorred technology would be destroyed once and for all. Everything was going as planned.

"Look at those pigs squirm, we'll have them eating out of the palm of our hand in no time eh Kiko?" he called back to his friend. He waited for a few seconds but heard no answer, "Yo Kiko you listening?" he called again, still no answer. He turned around only to see that his comrade was gone.

"Tenma, what happened to Kiko? He was watching the hostages?" he asked the man who was still patrolling.

Tenma opened his mouth to respond only to suddenly disappear into the darkness of a nearby shadow with a muffled grunt.

Immediately Maki grabbed his gun and pointed it at the shadows the other man had just disappeared into. "Come on out you coward," he yelled at the darkness and fired several shots into it. He heard each shot hit the hard concrete wall, meaning he'd missed. He looked around frantically searching for the intruder who had taken out his friends but he could see nothing in the shadows. He stepped to his left into one of the rays of light cast by the moon. There were no shadows here, the intruder couldn't sneak up on him. Then he noticed as the long shadow that he himself cast on the floor began to shift and move. His eyes widened as the darkness took form long enough to punch him square in the jaw, knocking him out cold before disappearing the next second.

After a second one of the hostages felt his bonds being cut cleanly with a single swipe. The same happened to the next two as well. A voice with no source rang out from the darkness, seemingly nowhere and everywhere all at once, "Stay here until I have finished freeing the rest of the hostages," it said before the subtle presence faded.

Kuroko made her way through the facility using the helmets exceptional detention abilities to find all of the terrorists and the suits stealth to take them down one by one from the shadow. She prioritized rescuing the hostages but then began to hunt down the remainder of the terrorists using every tool at her disposal to knock them all out. Just as she finished off the last one, Anti-Skill began ramming the front doors of the building after an examination of the buildings security cameras revealed the hostages safely gathered in the entrance and all of the terrorists unconscious.

Her job done here she left the building and continued listening to the scanner for her next opportunity.

* * *

And so the night continued to pass this way. After another half hour of nothing she decided to patrol while she waited, keeping an eye out using her infrared for any goings on as well as turning up the sensitivity of her helmets sound detectors to their highest to listen to any sounds. The helmet auto-regulated incoming sound waves so every noise had the same volume to ensure that she wasn't deafened by the errant caw of Prometheus while the sensitivity was turned so high up. The curfew meant that there weren't many people around but she did manage to stop a few crimes in between Anti-Skill messages.

Finally, around forty minutes or so before sunrise she went back to her safe house for another half hour meditation session before getting back to work with Riko.

When she woke up again, she teleported upwards out into the daylight immediately after getting ready, including sweater and sweatpants again as well as her schoolbag and sports bag. Then she waited until she was contacted, which was fairly soon.

Once again Riko guided her all around the district like a ravenous beast picking off the scum of the city one by one.

However Riko also noticed something. The teleporter's movements weren't nearly as fluid as they had been yesterday. Her reactions were duller and even her teleportations were slower and less accurate than before. After examining some data he easily determined that she had been up all night as well, patrolling around the city, even helping (read; doing it by herself for them) Anti-Skill take down a dangerous group of terrorists. There were no camera evidence to her presence but it was not too difficult a stretch to make all things considered.

The lull in activity was too short to have gotten any decent rest, something that most people needed. This caused the gradual erosion of the young girl's performance. She even began receiving injuries during her fights, something that had not happened yesterday.

This was actually slightly worrying to Riko. Many people would argue that the software designer/ information broker was a psychopath and they would probably be right for doing so. After curing himself of his childhood bipolar disease with his ability at the age of 12 he had been quite utilitarian about the contents of his brain and had gotten rid of many things which he deemed useless, like ethics, empathy, and desire. He wasn't a man who cared about other people.

But like many psychopaths he was quite possessive and could actually genuinely care about what he saw as his and, while he could hardly claim such a wild spirit as the teleporter as his own, he certainly found her fun. Watching her was more entertainment than he had had in a long time and if she died then that entertainment would be lost.

So, even though this was the most fun that he had had in years, at the end of the day he told her that this was the end of their partnership. He made up a lie about not being available tomorrow but told her that it was nice working with her.

To her credit she seemed to take it quite well, thanking him for his time and cooperation quite formally and bidding him good day in a very polite manner. A few seconds later she disappeared again, like she had done yesterday. Normally he could track her using the Gaokerena but it seemed to be in a place that no tracking device could reach. It was fairly annoying but there was nothing he could do about it, so he began his other work: his "investigation".

* * *

The past two days had caused quite a stir, both for the criminal underworld and for Anti-Skill. Yet the normal world seemed to know nothing. Normal news had reported the more interesting of the crimes, like the weapons and drugs busts, and, as expected, they had given all the credit to Anti-Skill, something the officer they interviewed just went along with. The agent told the reporter that they had "been following this lead for a while now and we're glad to see this bust come to fruition. It took a lot of effort on behalf of our officers but we pulled through and, as you can see, we have plenty to show for it."

Even weirder was the report on the terrorist attack which featured interviews of the hostages. They themselves credited their rescue to Anti-Skill, describing the attack and rescue in vivid detail. They showed footage that showed Anti-Skill storming the building, taking out the terrorists in an efficient and heroic manner.

To a normal person with normal resources this would be all they knew about or suspected. Of the fifteen major crimes and 243 more minor felonies or misdemeanors that Kuroko had been responsible for stopping in the past two days, a total of four of them had been reported, just a slight increase of the average report rate despite the astronomical increase in the number of arrests made and crimes solved.

Using his sources within one of the major news network he discovered that nothing, to his knowledge, had been faked or scripted or staged, and considering that he was the Editor-in-Chief Riko trusted that this was the truth. He did however reveal that there had been some fighting between the chief of Anti-Skill and the agent who had done one of the reports. The chief had ordered him, on penalty of being fired, to go along with the "official story" after the other officer had complained that it hadn't been them who had solved the case.

This made the puzzle almost too easy to solve unfortunately. The chief of Anti-Skill was nothing but a puppet of the government. The tapes of the incident could easily have been altered by someone with access, which any major government agent did indeed have. Even the interviewees' inaccurate reports could be accounted for by a quick mind alteration by one of Academy City's numerous psychics.

Riko sighed. As the maintainer of so many urban legend websites he was extremely accustomed to government conspiracy theories. What irritated him was how many of them turned out to be true. "Only in Academy City," he said.

Still Riko knew his boundaries. The government was powerful and dangerous so opposing them directly was never a good idea. Nevertheless it was very fun to skirt that line. In the past he had usually leaked just a tiny bit of secret information via an urban legend to see what people would do. It quickly mutated into something insane but that kernel of truth was still there and, if they cared to do so, some very perseverant people could actually unravel it and find that kernel of truth, and actually do something about it, much like the incident with the Level-Upper that he had discovered.

Still he could not see the purpose of this conspiracy. All it looked like was credit snatching, but why would they go to such lengths simply to make sure that it was Anti-Skill that were hailed as heroes.

The only thing that made sense was that the conspiracy wasn't to benefit Anti-Skill, but rather to protect Kuroko. Well, it was not the only thing which made sense but it did fit with the other things that Riko had dug up about the teleporter.

Though so far, failed to dig up would be a better description. So far Riko only found out two remotely interesting things about the girl, and one of them was the fairly mundane fact of her being a friend of the level five ESPer known as the railgun that went to the same school.

But in Riko's philosophy a lack of knowledge could be just as informative as knowledge itself. After all, normal people didn't exist in his experience and even if they did one would never come to him for something like she had been here for.

The revelation came shortly after he helped her track down Jango. When she heard her mention her mental instabilities it had been nothing but a fun little quirk of the girl, but the next day it had raised a question. How did a girl with a condition like that come to be in Judgment? Even if such a noticeable condition as schizophrenia could be concealed from standard tests for the 5 years she had resided in academy city prior to joining Judgment Anti-Skill tested the mental and physical abilities of their young recruits extensively before they were allowed to join.

After additional investigation he had found out something else. Her school transcripts from grades 3-6 had been altered. It took him seconds to break the basic encryption and reveal the original data. According to the transcript Kuroko had taken off massive amounts of time from school due to injuries or illness, the only reason she remained in the advanced class was the fact that it seemed to have no impact on her grades and she still managed to earn top marks in all her classes.

The data had been changed shortly before her admission to Judgment by the school itself for unknown reasons. If it had not it could have brought up serious problems in her consideration for the position.

He tried to find any medical records for these times that she had taken sick but he could find none despite the fact that her illnesses were clearly marked off by a doctor. Any records he did find listed her as perfectly healthy, though he found that these too were edited and their editing histories encrypted.

And here was where the truly interesting part lied: the encryption for these parts were far more advanced than almost anything he had seen before, only matched by certain top-secret military and governmental documents. The encryption pattern, or lack thereof, was similar to the kabbalah based encryption of the Orihime-I satellite that housed Tree diagram. It had taken Riko 3 years of his life to break that encryption pattern, only for the satellite to be destroyed a week after he did so. This pattern was even more advanced and Riko knew it would take another 3 years at least to figure this one out as well.

Someone very high up was looking after her, allowing her to get into Judgment and keeping her from being too conspicuous. The obvious answer would be a relative or friend of a relative but Riko could see no connection anywhere there. Kuroko's only living relatives were her parents and neither of them had anything to do with Academy City. Certainly they did not have nearly enough power to accomplish this level of data manipulation even if they did have a presence in the city.

This same group that covered up her medical history also seemed to cover up other achievements as well, seeming very cautious about making her too interesting to other people. It would explain why they were trying to cover this up as well.

They were good at this, very good. They were far better than Riko and he knew it. Still he hardly wanted the hard work that the girl had done in the past couple of days to have gone to waste.

"Will today be the day I get in over my head?" He asked the air as if someone was listening. Then he spun around in his chair once, twice , three times before coming to a stop. "Will today be the day I die?" he wondered amusedly as he gazed at his computer screen. If the people covering this up had as much power as he suspected them of having then that was not an impossibility.

He gazed for five seconds before hitting the enter button, submitting the data onto one of his websites. "It might be," he mused, answering his own question, "but such is the game."

* * *

It was now the early morning of Kuroko's third day on the beat and her body was weary to the point of collapse. Still she roamed the streets. Once again without Riko's support and without the police scanner that came with her helmet she was wandering blindly until an hour later when, by chance, she stumbled upon a group of thugs trying to break into a building. She stood in front of them and began announcing her presence, "Halt. I am Judgmeennnnn…" She managed to get to before she collapsed in exhaustion.

The four boys who had had past porblmes with Judgment saw this as a golden opportunity for payback, so they began to advance on the little girl. They had almost reached the unconscious teleporter when they heard a laugh as a man rounded the bend of the alley that they were in.

The man was young looking, quite tall, and seemed foreign, with pale white skin and styled brown hair. He wore an expensive looking designer suit. Pinned to his lapel was a white and black flower with vermillion leaves that looked like a cross between a lily and an orchid. "Good evening gentlemen," he said in French with a light but distinctive accent and a calm, haughty voice.

The four boys looked between themselves. They couldn't understand the man's words but they did notice the suit. A man like that probably had a lot of money and he didn't look very tough. They grinned at their continued good fortune and began advancing with more purpose. "No idea what you're saying old man but if you can understand us you better give us your money before we decide to hurt you. If you don't understand then I'm sure you can understand pain."

"I should've known such an uncivilized group of youngsters wouldn't know a language as nuanced as French," the man sighed, switching to Japanese, "and if were talking about the language of pain, I'm afraid I don't speak that very well at all." One second and four thumps later he continued, directing his speech at the four now-downed teenagers, "my power means that my opponents don't have much time to feel pain before they go down."

Now that he had taken care of those he looked at the other girl and smiled. He bent down and picked her up, taking her to a park a fair distance from the alley and setting her beneath one of the trees. Then he walked across the road on the other side back to where he had been waiting before he had stepped in. From there he watched as a young brown haired girl in a Tokiwadai outfit ran up to the slumbering girl as if she were her child who had been kidnapped for days and had just recently been found.

As he watched the other girl picked up the slumbering child he heard footsteps walking up to him and stopping beside him. "Finally back from the flower shop are you Lammington," he asked the other man, speaking again in his native French tongue.

"Indeed I am Vyers," he responded in kind with as distinctive an accent and as calm a voice as his friend. As he spoke he hefted the germania seeds and tank of Hydrogen Sulfide that he had picked up to show that his trip had been fruitful, "thank you for waiting." Lammington was slightly shorter than his friend and was currently wearing a pure white dress shirt and slacks, though he was quite uncomfortable in them and wished to get back into his robes as soon as possible. His hair was long and had grown pure white over the years. Other than the hair however he looked as young as Vyers did, which was somewhere in his mid-twenties.

"Oh it was no problem at all. As it seems something quite interesting fell into my lap as I was waiting," he said, pointing to the scene that he was observing. "You did say your little fleur de foudre [1] would be around here today didn't you? That's why you decided to go shopping today was it not? To finally get a look at the girl yourself?"

"You know me well friend, too well at times," he answered. Then he gestured his head towards the scene and said, "and the other one is the girl you have been talking about recently correct? The one who's been clearing up your mess with the horns."

"Indeed, it has been too long since I last checked up on her so I decided to do so again while I waited for you to finish up your shopping," he said as he showed the device which had been tracking her location ever since he had gotten the approval from his boss, "It was an hour well spent I believe."

"I see… how was she doing?"

"Not too good. When I saw her she was exhausted, like she hadn't gotten a good rest in days. I thought it would be best if I got her back to her friend to be looked after."

"You didn't take her to Az?"

"I'm sure he's too busy at the moment, besides it's quite a distance to his hospital and I don't have the Bentley because somebody thought it was a nice day for a walk."

Lammington chuckled, "I apologize friend, but it is a beautiful day is it not?"

Vyers simply sighed and said, "Indeed it is. Come on then, let's get going home now."

Lammington nodded and they began making their way back to their residence. Along the way he casually asked his friend, "What did our young supervisor have to say about your plan to use that girl as retrieval anyway?"

It was Vyers turn to chuckle now. He and his friend were some of the few people who could actually get away with calling their boss young, "He told me to be careful, though I do not know for whose sake his words were."

* * *

[1]: Flower of lightning

* * *

Author's Note: Since I haven't got many reviews of last chapter it's hard to know your impressions so I do not know if this explanation will be a defense or not.

Last chapter as well as parts of this chapter feature chunks of action from outside Kuroko's viewpoint despite her being the focus of the chapter. During these sections I focus exclusively on the action rather than what is going through her head during the events as I have been doing up to this point.

This is not laziness nor am I trying to focus on the action, I am actually trying to make a point about her state of mind. As Riko says in this chapter sometimes a lack of information is as good as information itself, in this case the lack of the events mental impact on Kuroko are trying to showcase how she feels. The point of her actions are at least in part to try and actually block out thought. She is trying to not feel and not think about anything other than what she is doing at that moment which I reflect by only including that. I hope that this is a satisfactory explanation for this.

Also I love foreshadowing and I really love it when that foreshadowing is finally brought to light, even partially. I hope you do too.

* * *

Dedications: I would like to dedicate this chapter to all the people in my real life who have helped me with this by listening and being supportive. Thank you all very much.

* * *

Coming soon: The assassin of gods versus the preserver of man; a battle of hearts and feathers begins.


	36. Toaru Tsui no Tomodachi

Toaru Tsui no Tomodachi

A Certain Pair of Friends

* * *

"That was not quite the reaction I was expecting," Saten said as she glanced to the floor of the threshold of Uiharu's apartment where a now unconscious Uiharu was laying, having fainted after Saten's somewhat aggressive declaration. Saten picked her flower-headed friend up delicately, holding her like a bride as she went into the apartment, closing the door behind her, and depositing the girl onto her bed, tucking her in like a young child.

Saten then began to ponder what she should do now. Normally the answer would have been obvious, she would have stayed to make sure her friend was all right. But given what had just happened she wasn't so sure. It wasn't necessarily a bad reaction per-say; the fainting could have been from simple lack of sleep or one of Uiharu's oh-so-common colds. But the timing was a little too... convenient for that. One way or another her action was likely the catalyst at least.

But that still didn't tell her whether Uiharu's reaction, that is to say the fainting, was a rejection or an acceptance. If it was an acceptance then it would be fine if she stayed. But if it was a rejection she doubted her friend would want her around when she woke up.

Saten had always been a risk taker and usually it worked out for her (level-upper incident notwithstanding) but never before had this much hinged on one interaction. This was the first time she had consciously risked something so important as her friendship with her best friend in the world. The outcome of this one little act could and would change everything.

Saten had decided she was ready for that, ready to accept whatever came of this, even if worst came to worst and the flower-headed rejected her and didn't want to be her friend anymore.

The prospect frightened her like nothing else but she trusted Uiharu like no one else and she trusted her to at least keep being her friend, even if she didn't return her feelings.

Saten sighed and sat down on the chair that was at Uiharu's desk. It was set a little bit short for the taller girl but it was quite comfortable, which was good considering the other girl slept in it as often as she slept in the bed. The flower-headed girl was such a hard worker, in her own way and she often ended up staying up quite late at night to finish up bits of coding or security patches or whatever she was working on, Saten rarely ever knew. Uiharu didn't often talk about her computer work and when she did Saten was always completely lost on the bits and pieces of jargon that the sentences were so thick with. All she could ever do was nod and say "I see" every so often, even if it was a blatant lie. But even if she couldn't understand she still loved the conversations, she loved every conversation she had with her friend.

Saten continued looking around the room. Even though she had been here numerous times before it seemed so new each time and her curiosity wouldn't let her stand by while a new place went unexplored. Her desk was as messy as ever it seemed, with piles of CDs stacked ridiculously high and 2 separate computer monitors, one of which was paused on some video game or another while the other had a screen with a massive string of numbers, letters, symbols, and endless lines of parentheses that made Saten dizzy just looking at.

The rest of the room was surprisingly clean for a teenage girl. Saten's room was ridiculously messy in comparison. She grinned when she thought back to the reason for this cleanliness.

* * *

It had been a warm spring day not but a few months ago.

"Wow... so this is your room eh?" Saten said as she barged into the small apartment. At the time it had been far worse than it was now, with pieces of trash strewn about the floor and clothes thrown every which way. "It's even messier than mine."

"Saten-san?! What are you doing?" Uiharu cried, sounding quite distressed at her new "friend's" sudden intrusion. "why are you being so mean?"

"I'm not being mean. It was a compliment actually. You see, messy rooms are far more interesting." She said as she began exploring, "So many treasures to be found." She said as she began rooting around the place much to Uiharu's continued dismay. But it wasn't until Saten had found one such treasure, a seemingly ordinary pair of yellow panties with a simple design, that she finally snapped.

Uiharu yanked the panties from Saten with tears brimming in her eyes and she opened her mouth to start yelling when suddenly she felt a gentle pressure on her head. She reached up to feel the soft petals of a flower that had been placed on the top center of her headband. Back then it had only had the few flowers to the left hand side of the headband, just above her ear.

"I almost forgot," Saten said with a wide smile, "a gift to celebrate our new friendship. The other flowers seemed to be a little lonely way off to the side so I thought I'd give them a friend as well. I'd hate for something so pretty to be all alone after all..."

Uiharu looked at the long-haired girl for a moment then her eyes went downwards towards the floor. "th-thank you," she said, her scolding dying in her throat at the other girl's sincere words.

* * *

From that day on the room had been kept spotless in a (futile) attempt to ward off any further prying attempts by Saten. Not only that but the panties that she had picked up seemed to have become important in some way to the flower-headed girl, judging by the fact that she wore them to so many special occasions despite the fact that they didn't seem significant in any other way.

Saten smiled as she remembered that happy time. She looked back at the sleeping girl and her headband which was now bursting with flowers, most of which had been presents from Saten. "Bribes" would be another appropriate term, given that most of the came with apologies for some misbehavior or another that the long haired level zero had committed.

"At least those beautiful little flowers aren't lonely anymore," she whispered. There was a subtle worry in her voice with an even more subtle hope, "I suppose you aren't alone anymore either. Even if you don't accept me as a friend you still have other people now right? Rich girls too. I know how much you love those. Even a level 5, the railgun herself, calls you a friend. Of course such a cute, sweet, kind girl like you deserves the best," she said as she reached out to pat the other girl's head, careful not to disturb the delicate petals of her headband.

Saten yawned widely. 'I'll stay until morning I guess,' the tired little girl decided. 'We'll see then how you feel about this.' Until then all she could do was hope and wish. She looked again at Uiharu's wreathe of flowers and began counting off the petals, 'She loves me, she loves me not, she loves me, she loves me not...' on and on until finally she slipped into sleep. With her last breath of consciousness she breathed out "she loves me."

* * *

Uiharu woke up the next morning quite confused. She didn't remember when she had fallen asleep nor why Saten was sitting,napping away, in the recently awakened-girl's computer chair which the other girl had pulled beside her bed.

She did remember the dream she had had featuring her long-haired friend. She remembered how Saten had kissed her and confessed her love. It had felt so real too, Uiharu could still feel the tingling of her lips where Saten's had been.

Of course it didn't matter how real it felt, Uiharu knew that it had been a dream. Her one-sided crush on her best friend was just that, a crush. The other girl didn't return her feelings and Uiharu was fine with that. It wasn't like she wasn't used to it by now. She wasn't nearly as bold as Kuroko when it came to expressing feelings and the fear of losing her greatest friend was a big enough deterrent for any such actions, especially knowing that Saten didn't return her feelings.

With a sigh and a heavy heart she rolled over in her bed, turning towards the wall. She shouldn't be staring at her friend after all.

A few moments later she heard some noise from behind her, she turned to look only to be startled by the sight of Saten not but a couple feet away from her, leaning on the bed and looking intently at her with her classic disregard for personal space.

"Hey there Uiharu. Feeling better?" Saten asked with a kind caring voice.

Drawing back a bit and blushing deeply at the closeness of the girl of her dreams Uiharu nodded. She drew up the blankets to try and cover her blush.

So far it was too difficult to tell how Uiharu was feeling. She seemed embarrassed but she was always embarrassed when Saten got so close, it was half the reason the long-haired girl did so in the first place. She didn't seem scared or angry or anything at Saten's presence. It could be that she had forgotten what had happened.

That itself was a blessing and an oppurtunity. Even if she did remember Saten could always play it off as a joke or something. She could abort this whole process right now and let everything go back to the way it was before.

"Oh good. I was worried when you fainted so suddenly yesterday. I didn't know my confession would surprise you quite so much." Saten was a risk-taker. She knew what she was putting on the line here, but she had decided that she would risk it even if the consequences for a failure were almost unthinkable for the level zero.

"C-C-Con-Confess?!" Uiharu spluttered out. She wasn't sure if she had heard Saten right. If she had then that meant...

Saten gave a single nod, "I love you Uiharu," she repeated with far more conviction than she had had yesterday. Then she closed her eyes. She knew that there was no turning back now. Either she would be rejected and Uiharu would push her away or...

Uiharu wrapped her arms around her friends waist and began crying into the other girl's chest. She didn't know why she was crying. Everything was just so overwhelming. She was so happy right now that she felt like she could just about burst. The only word she could get out was, "really?"

Saten looked down at her friend and immediately felt a great wave of relief running through her. She returned the other girl's hug "of course Uiharu, I would never joke about something like this. I really do love you, I have for a while." Despite having charged in to this situation fairly recklessly, as was her usual, Saten felt so cool right now. Everything was going perfect, she was being so suave and charming (in her mind at least), and best of all Uiharu returned her feelings... probably... she should probably get confirmation or something when this hug was over...

When Uiharu's tears of joy had finally dried up however she did not let go. The hug dragged on and on and though Saten was loathe to let go of the other girl, she thought that it might have gone on a tad too long. "Um... Uiharu..." she began.

Uiharu, being brought back to reality by Saten's voice, immediately backed off blushing, "I'm sorry," she said, her voice full of embarrassment.

"it's fine," Saten deferred, trying to laugh it off, but she could tell that the atmosphere had grown tense and despite how suave and cool she believed she was being, she had no idea what to do next. As the awkward silence grew along with the tenseness of the atmosphere Saten found herself fighting a growing urge to flip Uiharu's skirt out of both habit and stress relief. Still she knew that now was not the time. She was strong enough to fight that desire...

* * *

2 seconds later...

"Saten-san!" Uiharu cried holding her skirt back down, "why do you always do that?"

"Tradition," Saten explained in response, she was a little ashamed of herself for caving in to the temptation so quickly but it had broken the awkward silence. "You don't expect me to stop such a great and long-lasting tradition simply because I confessed do you?" she teased.

She knew that answer was somewhat lacking but she kept the real reason a closely guarded secret. As opposed to what she had told Misaka she did have a reason for flipping Uiharu's skirt in particular that first time she did it rather than anyone else's before or afterwards. When she had first met Uiharu she had been quite a shy girl who had a lot of difficulty opening up to others. Still there had been something about her that had, upon the first time the long haired girl had seen her, convinced her that the flower-headed girl would make a great friend if she made the effort.

Still it was hard to get someone like that to open up. Sometimes it was nearly impossible to pierce a shy person's armor, so Saten knew she had to do something drastic to catch her off her guard for long enough to worm her way in and become friends. The flipping of her skirt had been such an unexpected, intimate, and embarrassing for the flower-headed girl that it had made her completely drop her guard.

The logic behind that however was kind of silly so she hadn't told Uiharu the first couple times she had asked out of embarrassment, after that she had kept it a secret because she liked secrets and Uiharu's indignant face was so cute.

"speaking of my confession, I don't believe that I've heard an answer yet," Saten pointed out and waited for her reply.

The flower-headed girl's reply was an even deeper blush than before and a whole lot of stammering before she finally managed to squeak out the word "yes" in a very quiet voice.

Her friend's embarrassed face was even cuter than her indignant face so Saten couldn't help but tease her just a little bit more, "yes what?"

Uiharu clenched her fist and looked down at the floor as she took a deep breath "I... I... I lo... I love you too Saten," she finally managed to get out.

Saten sank into the chair that was behind her with a massive sigh, "wow... that's a relief. I was so worried yesterday when you fainted on me. I thought you were going to take this really badly."

"I..." Uiharu began, then she paused and sat down on her bed after finding that her legs were still having trouble supporting her, "I thought it was all a dream... I didn't think you would actually do that."

"It was kind of a reckless thing to do wasn't it."

"That's not why... I just didn't think that you would ever actually return my feelings."

"Same here... that's why it took so long to tell you. I was so scared of you rejecting me."

"I... umm... why did you?" Uiharu asked, curious as to what had caused her friend's sudden change of heart.

Saten opened her mouth to respond then thought it over. She could still vividly (perhaps more vividly than she would care to) see the sight of her other two best friends making out on their bed despite being the same gender. She hadn't had much time to think about it other than how it related to her own issues but now that she thought about it she realized that the best reaction would probably be to try and forget it, or at least not bring it up with them and certainly not tell anyone about it. So she simply replied, "I was motivated by the bravery of another person and seeing how well it worked out for them."

Uiharu nodded and then there was another slightly awkward silence until she finally spoke up and asked, "now what?"

Once again Saten opened her mouth only to realize that, "I have no idea really. The romance stories usually end at this point with a happily ever after or something don't they?" Growing up without parents or many other adult role models made many children who had grown up in Academy city have a somewhat loose grip on what a relationship looked like. Many, like Saten, gathered it from a series of romance stories and dramas to get a half-way realistic view of what it was like, others, like Misaka, chose instead to get their idea of what a relationship was from fairy tales rather than more realistic sources and ended up with an idealized picture of what was actually a conflict filled road. Still others, like a certain teleporter that Saten could name, chose to get their idea of what a relationship was from books that someone their age had no place reading. The thirteen year old wasn't anywhere near ready for the kind of intimate, mature relationship that her other friends currently had so she wasn't quite sure what came next.

"I suppose... nothing," Saten continued, "We can just continue being friends until we're ready for something else. And when we are ready, we both now know each other's feelings so it can grow from there."

"So it's just going to go like it's always gone?" Uiharu said, maybe slightly disappointed at that but actually quite relieved at the same time.

"I suppose we could start holding hands or something, you know, maybe some kissing... if you want... I wouldn't mind or anything if you don't," Saten continued. Now even she was blushing, the cool and suave persona gone out the window long ago, "It's not like I didn't like it... I did."

"I... I wouldn't mind... I liked it too," the flower-headed girl stuttered. There was another short, awkward pause before Saten stood up and walked over to her.

"Can we... now?" Saten asked, looking in her eye with an odd sort of seriousness that Uiharu wouldn't normally attribute to her friend.

She nodded and closed her eyes, puckering her lips slightly. Saten drew close, slowly. It wasn't like the first time. The danger and risk of the first kiss had nullified her embarassment,but this time it hit full force and she found herself shaking and hesitating as she got closer until finally she stopped just a short distance. She closed her eyes and tried to convince her body to move the rest of the way, fruitlessly however. They hovered there for a few seconds until Uiharu, surprisingly, decided to take the initiative and close the gap. Unfortunately it was a clumsy kiss, their noses knocking together painfully.

"Saten-san," Uiharu half-scolded half-whined at her friends role in the clumsy little display of affection.

"Sorry, sorry," Saten replied, "I'm just a little bit nervous and I'm not very good at kissing yet, it's not like I've done it much before. The other one before this was good but you fainted afterwards."

She heard the other girl mutter something, "what was that?" the long haired girl asked, the other girl's words too quiet to hear.

"I said 'do it again' properly this time," the flower-headed girl clarified with an odd and cute sort of authority in her voice that conflicted (yet somehow mixed so well) with her embarrassed blush.

Saten smiled and obediently said, "yes ma'am" as if she was an army private talking to her superior. She decided to reposition herself for this next attempt. She moved onto the bed, next to the other girl. She moved one knee behind Uiharu putting her quite close. Then she cradled the back of Uiharu's head with her hand. Then she tilted her own head and began moving towards the other girl again, moving her head closer as well. Soon the pair's lips met in a slower and more delicate version of their very first kiss. She counted to three in her head then moved away.

"Better?" She asked.

Uiharu simply looked down at the bed and nodded, too embarrassed to speak.

* * *

After moving to a more comfortable, and further away, position on the bed, the long-hared girl sat along with her friend in silence, cooling off her own embarrassment. Eventually she tried to start another conversation with the flower-headed girl to help relax the atmosphere, "there have been quite a few sirens recently. I think that's the fifth that's gone by in the past half hour."

"I wonder if there's a fire or something," Uiharu suggested. She hadn't really noticed the sirens with all that had been happening.

Saten went to the window and looked out just in time to see an Anti-Skill van barrell on by, "Nope, looks like Anti-Skill. Maybe some big bust is going on or something." She would check the rumor sites later to see if she could figure out what had gone on.

Suddenly Uiharu looked at the clock, "what?! It's this late already? I gotta get ready and go to work." she said as she frantically began to do just that.

"um... I guess I'll just wait outside for you then?" Saten asked suspecting that Uiharu wouldn't want her in her watching her get undressed. Not that she'd like that or anything... it wasn't like she'd dislike it or thought that Uiharu was ugly or anything it was just that... the picture of the other two making out flashed again through her head once again triggering the simple conclusion that she wasn't ready for that kind of stuff yet.

"sure, go and do that," Uiharu answered and went into the bathroom to take a shower.

* * *

Saten sighed and left the apartment, waiting outside the door for around five minutes until she was joined again by her friend. In those five minutes she had seen yet another Anti-Skill van making her even more curious.

When they finally got to the office they found it in chaos. The second they entered Konori approached Uiharu and said, "thank god you're here. I need you to try and fix whatever's wrong with the computers that's causing us to be unable to access the camera network. I'm going out to see what I can do to help Anti-Skill," she said as she began to leave the building, just before reaching the door she turned back to them, "and out of curiosity," she continued in a voice that was equal parts worry and anger, "do either of you know where Kuroko is?"

"no," the pair responded simultaneously as the shook their heads, surprised by how frustrated Konori-senpai was acting.

After she left Uiharu took her place at her desk and began her work. "She wasn't here yesterday either was she," Uiharu said regarding Kuroko.

"Yeah," Saten replied, "Misaka said that she was sick."

"huh... that's surprising," Uiharu replied, the surprise at the situation weathered by her confusion at the error that the screen was displaying.

The screen was a standard error screen, one that said that a program needed administrative approval to run. The problem was that the network had never needed approval (other than bureaucratic approval from Anti-Skill, but that was a matter of Judgment guidelines that didn't block network access and even if it had Konori had already gotten approval) before. She tried her passwords as well as the passwords needed to access other programs but none of them worked. She tried other methods of accessing the program but everything encountered this same wall. She used a few programs to try and figure it out but any half-decent hacking tools actually did require Anti-Skill approval to use.

She got more and more frustrated as she was reduced to guessing random passwords until finally Saten asked what was wrong and Uiharu blurted out, "this thing," she said pointing, "it's asking for some password, it's never done that before."

Saten leaned over and typed something and suddenly the screen flashed "access granted".

Uiharu's jaw dropped, "What did you do Saten-san?"

"Well I heard somewhere that the most common password is password so I guessed that," She beamed, "looks like I got lucky."

Or not... as the next second the text on the screen changed, "Access granted... just kidding. You don't really think the password would be something so simple and, frankly, cliched as that did you? Better luck next time."

While this really annoyed Uiharu it also told her something important. It was clearly the work of a hacker, quite a good one at that to be so resistant to all her attempts so far, no official coding would be that unserious. Official coding usually made people fall asleep, she had never seen one that made someone laugh as hard as Saten was right now.

She checked her Gatekeeper firewall to see if it had recently been breached but saw that it had not, meaning that it was probably a problem within the networks themselves. She decided to call up Anti-Skill and report this and was surprised to get the chief himself on the line. She reported what she had experienced.

"Don't worry about that, it is simply a new security measure we have implemented in a few choice Judgment locations. It is a new and more than a little buggy right now but you can rest assured we have people working on it right now. Until then it would be best to try and work without camera access for the next day or so." He responded calmly.

"But... but that makes no sense," she said and told him about the message she had just received that had convinced her that it was a hacker in the first place.

"Our coding department has a sense of humor at times, they tend to get a little less light than is strictly healthy," he replied in a slightly exasperated manner that told Uiharu that he had dealt with this kind of problem from them before.

"I...I understand," Uiharu said, not sure what else she could say.

After hanging up she told Saten what had transpired and she agreed that it was slightly suspicious. But the rest of the day did not turn up anything new that could give them information on what was really going on. The sirens had stopped a while ago even though Anti-Skill vans still zipped down the street on a regular basis. The most information Saten could find about it online were a few guesses that it was some sort of drill that Anti-Skill was running.

Though this hardly sated her curiosity it was all she could find before the day was over and the two went home. As they parted Saten suggested meeting up tomorrow for some ice cream and shopping, to which Uiharu agreed.

Satisfied at her good day in general Saten composed a happy little tune (that she called doki-doki pantsu) and whistled it all the way home.

* * *

The next day was just as good. She and Uiharu, who didn't work today, went out on the town, which was again filled with Anti-Skill vans with their sirens off. As the pair was walking to the mall sharing a large ice cream cone, they heard a familiar voice in front of them.

"Dammit Kuroko, where the hell did you go," said a very frustrated Misaka. She had spent all morning searching but hadn't found a single sign of the teleporter. She was worried and angry. The only way this day could get any worse was if that spiky haired idiot were to show his face (which was impossible as he was currently in jail along with the few hundred other victims of Kuroko's crime-hunting spree decrying his luck) or...

"Hey there Misaka, what's up?" Saten asked, catching the electro-master by surprise.

"I.. uh... I'm just looking for Kuroko," Misaka replied embarrassed. She still wasn't sure how much Saten knew or had seen but the very idea that she might know was... disconcerting.

"Why what happened?" Uiharu asked. It was the second time she had heard someone ask after her friends location in the past two days. It was slightly worrying but she was sure the other girl was fine.

"oh... nothing... I gotta go," Misaka said before hurrying off.

"Sure you don't want some help?" Saten offered to her shrinking back but received no answer. So after a brief look at Uiharu they decided to continue with their plans but perhaps keep an eye out for their friend in case they crossed paths.

As it turns out they didn't, and the rest of their fun little day together passed by in a blur. Until finally curfew neared and they returned home. Saten walked Uiharu home first since it was on the way. When they got there she smiled at her friend and said, "I have something for you." She pulled out a single flower from her bag. "It's been a while since I last gave you one of these and it seemed like a good time."

Uiharu took it with a grin and said, "thank you very much."

"it really brings back memories doesn't it? Of the first time I gave you one all those months ago. It was right in that room just as you were about to yell at me for rifling through your room. You were holding the very pair of panties that you're wearing right now," even though she hadn't flipped her skirt even once today (a fact of which she was very proud) she knew that she was right, "and your face was as red as it is now too."

"Saten-saaan..." Uiharu whined, "don't bring up such embarras-" she was cut off by a gentle kiss from the other girl.

"I'd hate for something so pretty to be all alone," she echoed her sentiment from all those months ago, "I'm happy to be your friend and I hope our friendship continues to grow."

Uiharu nodded, "thank you."

"It's my pleasure," Saten replied, "goodnight Uiharu."

"goodnight Saten-san," Uiharu said before withdrawing into her room to prepare the latest addition to her wreath.

* * *

Author's Note:Saten and Uiharu really don't get enough love, I mean KuroMiko isn't a very popular pairing either but it still has its fans and its fanfictions. Even though SatenxUiharu has plenty of fans there are so few works of fiction for it on this site.

It was so hard deciding whether I should title the chapter "a certain pair of friends" or "a certain pair of panties". I tried to see if there was a word for one that sounded like the other but that failed so I decided to go with the safe option and just do "friends"

* * *

Dedications: The reason this chapter is in here at all was the revelation I received from EtherealFox that my story was getting a little too somber so it only seems right to dedicate this chapter to him/her/hir/it/them. EtherealFox is another faithful reviewer and reader and I thank you very much for leaving such fun and interesting reviews.

* * *

Coming Soon: Pawns threatens King, the Black-Knight-Gambit begins.


	37. Toaru Tatakai no Shuuryou

**Important note: This is and will remain a "T" rated fic. This chapter may skirt a few lines but I assure you that it never steps over it, even when it looks like it might.**

* * *

Toaru Tatakai no Shuuryou

A Certain End of the Fighting

* * *

For the second time in as many months Misaka carried her unconscious roommate and girlfriend through the hallways of their dorms to their room. She entered the room and sat down on the bed, the other girl, still unconscious, cradled on her lap.

It had taken more than a day of searching to find her, dividing her time between an active search for the teleporter and a more passive one while she spent some time doing her other task and destroying the assets of Yashinko's father. In all that time she hadn't discovered a single clue or gotten even a momentary glimpse of the other girl. She was starting to seriously worry when she finally found the other girl sleeping fitfully beneath the tree in one of the city's parks.

When she had first seen her she had been so relieved yet also very angry. Had Kuroko been awake Misaka probably would have said something that she would have regretted in her anger. But now she had some time to calm down and start seriously considering what to say as well as how to say it.

Though perhaps the first thing that she needed to figure out was how she was going to prevent the other girl from teleporting away again as soon as she woke up. She was sure she could (probably) convince her to stay if she could just talk with her and get everything sorted out, but there was no way to keep a teleporter somewhere that they didn't want to be. She could theoretically disrupt her ability. She knew that Kuroko could not teleport while distracted. This could be achieved through a low level of variable pain (constant pain could be ignored) or by creating other distractions. Since hurting Kuroko was not only an unpleasant idea for Misaka to handle but also counterproductive to her plan she decided that distracting her with something else would be preferable.

She looked down at her girlfriend's peaceful sleeping face and ran a hand through her hair. Her pinkish brown mane, normally silky and well cared for, was now quite tangled, messy, and slightly greasy. Her face, the only visible patch of flesh on her body at the moment besides her hands, was marked with a bit of dirt which Misaka wiped off for her.

She wondered what new injuries were under those sweatpants and sweatshirt. She thought for a moment about checking but decided that this would not be the best way to find out. It would be better if Kuroko chose to show her.

Then an idea hit Misaka, an idea on how to handle this situation.

* * *

From the moment that Misaka picked her up Kuroko was aware of what had happened. Only one person's touch could so easily dispel her nightmares after all.

Kuroko smiled at this. Her hard work had paid off it seemed. She had worked for three days solid until she had finally collapsed in exhaustion, all to prove that she wasn't a burden to anyone. It seemed that it had worked as well. She had finally done enough that she would be forgiven.

Still she would need to be careful. Doing this had not solved the initial problem that her actions were causing her Onee-sama's unhappiness. She resolved that she should probably stop with the skinship and the kisses. Those were the most likely causes after all.

Of course the changes would make her unhappy, but certainly not as unhappy as being rejected by the love of her life had been. Sacrifices were the essence of relationships after all.

* * *

Soon Kuroko began to stir. "Kuroko," Misaka called, gently stroking the other girls temple, running a slight charge through her fingers to produce a pleasant tingly effect… in theory. She hoped that a pleasant feeling could distract Kuroko as effectively as a painful one.

Despite the fact that it was unnecessary it still worked, and Kuroko relaxed at the soothing gesture. "Hey Onee-sama. Have I become less of a burden to you?" She asked fairly directly, the calming stroking putting her off her guard as she began to wake up.

Misaka sighed, though she had been expecting this. It seemed that Kuroko still misunderstood what she had been trying to say. It seemed that she would need to take a more aggressive approach after all. "I never said you were a burden Kuroko. I was trying to speak with you about something else… Stand up and follow me." She said and waited for Kuroko to obey, though she looked confused as she did so. Misaka led her into the bathroom and closed the door behind them. She took a deep breath in preparation.

* * *

"Take it off," Misaka told Kuroko in a steady voice, leaning against the wall, her eyes hidden by her bangs.

"What?"

"Your shirt. Take your shirt off."

Kuroko's eyes widened as her face turned crimson. She had not been expecting this but... they did just have a fight… this was how adults made up wasn't it? But she had not expected her Onee-sama to be that mature. "Are you sure Onee-sama… do you… I mean…" She stuttered. She was tired, put on the spot, and her Onee-sama was being uncharacteristically aggressive. It was so confusing and she was far too exhausted and panicked to think straight.

"I want to see… just take your shirt off."

The level five's voice was stern, commanding, hard to resist, and Kuroko didn't truly want to resist. It was sudden but… she was ready. She had been ready for a while. So she took off her sweatshirt and teleported her armour back into the closet. Then, her hands shaking from exhaustion and nervousness, she began unbuttoning her shirt. Kuro was jabbering but she ignored her voice, her full attention taken up by the task at hand. Despite her shaking hands the task was soon complete. Her shirt was fully unbuttoned and now all she had to do was take it off.

Still her hands hesitated. Her mouth was dry, her stomach was in knots, she was shaking. This was what she had been waiting for all this time. Now that it was before her though, it was a bit… daunting. But her Onee-sama was waiting for her. She had taken such a bold leap in doing this, Kuroko couldn't disappoint her by hesitating. They may have had their moments of conflict but now it was time to take the final step and her Onee-sama would be right there with her. So she took off the shirt and let it fall to the floor. then she closed her eyes and bared her chest to the cold air, ready to give herself fully to her Onee-sama.

Over her thundering heartbeat Kuroko heard her take a step towards her. Then she felt a soft, warm hand press against her stomach oh so gently. Then she moved her hand upwards, tracing a line up her chest with each of her fingers, almost like they were following…

"You're very good at hiding your scars," Misaka said to Kuroko as she examined the latest damages. Any embarrassment she would normally have felt ordering Kuroko to take off her shirt, or looking and touching her bare chest was completely forgotten as soon as she looked upon the tapestry of cuts, bruises, and wounds, both old and new, which marred the flesh.

It had gotten worse in the past couple days. Now her arms, as well as her chest, were bruised and cut up. Band-Aids of various sizes were plastered all over her right arm while her left arm had several bruises all along the forearm. Her left shoulder was wrapped in a bandage stained red with blood.

Looking closely at the other girl's body for the first time Misaka noticed how athletic Kuroko was. Her small body looked very spindly but closer inspection revealed lean, tightly grouped, and very well defined musculature, seemingly without a single ounce of fat, excess or otherwise. The reason the teleporter was so flat chested was because she had burned off all the fat that would have made up her breasts before they had begun to form. That and the fact that she had yet to begin going through puberty…

The muscles, however, held signs of damage and fatigue as well. They twitched and pulsed irregularly under Misaka's hand, suggesting that they had undergone severe strain in the past couple of days to be this bad even after more than an hour of rest. Her heart, which the electro-master could feel beating under her hand, was similarly irregular, even more so than usual. The electro-master had always been sensitive to, and fascinated by, the dance of electrical signals and firing nerves that was a heartbeat, and ever since she had known the younger girl she had felt a belated, irregular rhythm from the teleporter's heart. Now that steady beat was even less rhythmic and even.

* * *

Misaka took another deep breath as she tried to recover from the sight of all of this and focus on what she was trying to tell Kuroko.

"You try and keep all your pain to yourself, convinced that you need to suffer in silence if you don't want to be a burden to others. You think that your pain is your pain and your fights are your fights. You don't tell your friends because you don't want them to get hurt. But as a very wise girl once told me 'do you really think that your friends want you to get hurt? That I want you to get hurt? Your fights involve me because they involve you.' You are not a burden; you are my girlfriend and the best one that I could hope for." She spoke in a calm and comforting voice, working hard to keep her other emotions out of her voice.

Tears welled up in Kuroko's eyes at her Onee-sama's words. Her lips quivered and she shook with the strain of suppressing her emotions.

"And more importantly, know that my feelings for you won't ever change because of a couple of scars. I said in the hospital that I don't care about them and I meant it. You don't need to be ashamed of them. No matter what scars you may bear, I promise that I will accept you. Nothing can ever change the fact that you belong here… with me." Misaka finished with a smile as she waited for Kuroko's reaction. The electro-master was quite satisfied with herself for managing to keep her cool throughout this entire thing and also for managing to end on such a touching and heartwarming sce-

Suddenly Kuroko stepped forward, closer to Misaka, and captured her lips in her own as her hands attended other matters. "Onee-sama," she said a second later as she pulled herself momentarily aware from the kiss. Her voice was so full of emotion it was hard for the electro-master to tell exactly what the teleporter was feeling, "thank you. Thank you. I love you so so much…" she finished as she continued her actions in order to show just how much she did love her Onee-sama.

After the initial shock that the action had caused had worn off, Misaka pushed Kuroko away very firmly, sending the smaller girl stumbling backwards for a couple steps until her finely honed sense of balance helped her recover.

"What the hell Kuroko," The electro-master almost shouted, "how in the world did you hear the words 'grope me' in anything I said?" She had thought that everything had been going great but it seemed that the other girl couldn't control herself for long enough to not ruin the mood that she had worked so hard to set. It seemed that it was hopeless trying to be sentimental with her.

The teleporter looked completely and utterly confused at this turn of events. She had thought that everything was perfect. The mood seemed to be right and everything, "but… but we just made up… isn't this the next step. That's how making up goes between lovers… isn't it?"

Misaka was actually surprised by the baffled look on her face and the confusion in her voice. She had thought that Kuroko was just being lecherous and misreading her actions. But it actually seemed that she really didn't know how these things went, she actually thought her actions had been proper. Misaka sighed and rubbed her temples, "No Kuroko," she began, her anger turned to exasperation. She felt like a parent explaining to their kid why it was wrong to pull on their crush's pigtails, "that's not how things go. After making up we hug, maybe kiss at most, and that's it. We do not do… what you were doing." She said, finding herself too embarrassed to put the other girl's actions into words.

"Oh…" Kuroko replied simply. The younger girl knew that her Onee-sama was naïve but not this naïve. She hadn't expected her to be too childish to grasp the concept of make-up sex. Really she should have known, her Onee-sama was far too new to relationships for something like that. She had gone too far this time and she felt a little embarrassed and more than a little disappointed.

After that an awkward silence fell over the two, neither of them willing to speak or leave, until Kuroko cleared her throat and continued, "well my words are sincere regardless." She was now much more in control of herself and her steady, slightly formal voice attested to this fact, "thank you. And I love you. I apologize for my behavior the past few days. If you accept me back then I will stay and I promise it will not happen again."

"Of course I'm going to accept you back you idiot," Misaka said. The "idiot" was perhaps unnecessary in that sentence, but overall she felt that Kuroko deserved at least that for making her worry so much.

"Then if you would excuse me," Kuroko said, "I haven't had a decent shower in 2 days and my hair isn't in the best of shapes. It's embarrassing for my girlfriend to see me like this."

Misaka reached up and ruffled said hair affectionately, "fine, but no more running off, ok?"

Kuroko wasn't sure whether she should be annoyed at being looked down upon by someone as childish as her Onee-sama, satisfied that her Onee-sama was growing up enough to look down on her at all, or ecstatic that her head was being patted so tenderly. She decided on the last one and said, "Yes Onee-sama. But I do need to do one thing after this, so I will need to be going soon."

"What do you need to do?"

"Check in at Judgment. I have a feeling Konori will have a lot of chewing out to do for the past couple of days."

"Ah yeah, you missed work didn't you?" Misaka asked only to receive a grunt in response. "ok then. But you better be home tonight or you're sleeping in your own bed from now on." Never before would Misaka have thought that this would be a threat rather than a statement of fact.

* * *

After saying that Misaka left the room and Kuroko began to tidy herself up.

Though her suit had kept her mostly clean and protected from the elements, she had still been dirtied somewhat since this morning. So, to remedy this, she began stripping out of the rest of her clothes. Soon Kuroko stood in the bathroom alone and began to concentrate. She focused hard on her sense of self and oneness, feeling each and every part of her body and creating a picture of herself in her head. After several seconds of this she used her power and teleported everything that was not part of her down several meters into the ground. All the dirt and grime and sweat that had accumulated on her for these past several hours since she had last done this as well as the latest bandages that she had put on were teleported off of her into the ground, leaving just a clean and completely bare Kuroko standing there.

Being a teleporter had a great many perks to it that she was still discovering [1]. This particular trick she had discovered a few years ago in an effort to free up more time in her schedule and get rid of as much personal maintenance as possible. It had been easier back then, back when she couldn't teleport herself. Now she needed to focus hard on where she ended and the dirt began in order to do it, but it still saved an immense amount of time and allowed her to maintain a basic cleanliness even without a shower. Of course it didn't extend to her hair so she still needed to take care of that in the usual fashion.

So she stepped into the bath and turned on the shower to its coldest setting, as per usual. As the freezing water poured over her she turned her mind to more important things. "She was touching my bare chest," she quietly said to herself, glee apparent in her voice, "it wasn't exactly groping or anything but it's still something." In her mind she replayed what had happened a couple times, "She seemed to have an obsession with the scars from the whip," she thought out loud as she recalled the events. Her eyes had darted to the five white lines several times and her hand had remained on it, her fingers each tracing a line, for almost the entirety of the conversation. "Maybe it's a kink…" Kuroko swore she could have seen some signs of arousal from her Onee-sama.

This thought caused her to smile broadly. She had initially thought that it would be a turn off to her Onee-sama so she had taken care to cover it from that point on. But if her Onee-sama liked it then she could exploit it. It was still embarrassing and she would still keep it covered from everyone else, but for her Onee-sama alone she could flaunt it.

_Is that really what you're going to take away from this whole thing?_ Kuro was satisfied to see that Shiro was happy again but the transition between sad and happy had been alarmingly fast, even for someone as naturally polar as Shirai Kuroko.

"It's the most pleasant train of thought available," she said quietly as she began shampooing her hair, "Sure I could choose to be embarrassed by my utter failure to grasp basic social norms or disappointed that that failure did not bear any fruit, but I'd prefer to focus on the good things. Plus I clearly have good reason. It turns out that the only thing I was doing that was making her unhappy was keeping my scars to myself. I can continue the skinship and kissing all I want after all… well at least I can continue them as much as she wants. I'll also need to make a note that she still isn't quite ready for something as intimate as that… maybe in a few more weeks."

* * *

Kuro was glad nothing had happened. Shiro did not seem to grasp how close she had skirted to severe psychological damage. For once Kuro was actually grateful to the pereskia for being so harsh on Shiro. True she had done nothing but her normal behavior but in this case it turned out that that was what was needed.

The reason Kuro was grateful and the thing that Shiro didn't quite seem to understand was that had they done the act that Shiro had wanted to right then it would have screwed everything up. From that point on Shiro would have linked that act, and the pleasure it brought, with forgiveness and conflict. This would have led to more fights being started in hopes of the forgiveness that the fights eventually led to, much like she had, over time, come to see the pereskia's shocks as statements of love and actually sought the shocking out. This had ended the first night of the Queen incident which, even though she didn't remember it, had affected her strongly enough to break her of that conditioning.

After seeing how damaging to Shiro's psyche a single fight had been, Kuro had been understandably panicked when she had seen her start down the road to destruction that was make-up sex, and understandably relieved when she had been pushed off that harmful road by the very person that Kuro despised for her tendency to hurt Shiro.

_Then think away if you wish. But If I may ask a question beforehand… do you still cling to your supposed insanity now that you are happy again?_

"Yes and no. I have figured out that my happiness is certainly not a product of my insanity. Everything good that happens to me is real. It's everything else that is my delusions. Every bad thing that has ever happened to me was just in my head."

_I am intrigued to hear the reasoning behind this. _Indeed Kuro, who was a (mostly) purely logical entity (aside from the severe paranoia and pessimism), couldn't possible see the connection between the events that occurred and the conclusions she drew. It was as if she had read "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" and took the moral to be "The greatest kindness will not bind the ungrateful" [2]. Granted the events were far more… unusual than a clear cut fable like that, but even then it should have born some semblance to what had actually happened.

"Oh that's easy. You're the reason. You only come out when times are tough and I'm unhappy correct? Well you are the greatest proof of my insanity. Meaning that times when you're here must be delusions."

_What about your recent happiness then? Or what about the horrible things that happened before I was around._

"Of course recent events are exceptions. Now you are here constantly and there is another sign that I am insane. The bird; you know, Prometheus. As for my childhood I'll have to get back to you on that, but maybe those times I was actually unhappy."

Kuro wasn't sure that this use of insanity as a shield from reality was admirable or potentially damaging, but she decided that it was ok for now.

* * *

Now Kuroko turned the water of the shower off. She heard the door to the room open and close, signaling that her Onee-sama had left. She sighed with both disappointment and relief. She left the bathroom and went to the closet, digging around until she found a well hidden box with a lock on the outside. She teleported the locks off and opened the box to reveal a large number of pills bottles, ointments, and other things.

"I should have remembered to bring this along before," she sighed as she took out several different bottles, doling out the contents in preset doses out into her hand and swallowing them. Then she took what appeared to be two patches of fabric out of the bag and placed them on her "knife" wound, cursing the fact that they were too big to fit on her bullet wound which she was forced to rewrap with normal bandages. After that she rubbed one of the ointments all over her chest, arms, and legs, making sure to cover all her bruises. Then she rubbed another ointment on top. The first was an ungent that would help to heal the bruises while the second was a concealer to cover them up. The pills were to help with her severe muscle fatigue and exhaustion.

"Try as I might I know I cannot convince you to stop this behavior, even if it is damaging to your body," her doctor had said long ago, "but I can at least help ensure that your body can recover quickly afterwards. Take these in the evening and they will make sure that, in the morning, you're healthy enough to continue."

She was very grateful to that doctor and the man who had introduced them. Those two had truly saved her in her time of trouble. But now she was better and the doctor was busy with other people and things so she checked in with him less and less regularly, even if her injuries were equal to those that would have once made her go. She hadn't even seen him once since the last time they met coincidently outside the hospital with that other women with him.

But that was alright. She had everything that she needed in this box. He had already given her so much, more than enough to make it by on her own. She could leave him in peace now.

* * *

She sealed the box back up and put it away and got her clothes on. She retrieved her glasses and armor from her sweater and the closet respectively. Then she left to go to Judgment. She arrived maybe half a minute later (teleporter was far less strenuous than walking at the moment) and braced herself for the verbal onslaught that was sure to come.

Then she opened the door and stepped into the room. Konori sat at her desk with a mound of paperwork. Kuroko cleared her voice and the older girl turned around. Her eyes widened and she immediately stood up. She was over to Kuroko in a couple of steps and the teleporter, closed her eyes, expected her boss to strangle her or break her neck or something over the trouble she had caused but ready to accept that punishment.

What she did not expect was for the older girl to hug her tightly and say in a tearful voice, "thank god you're all right Kuroko… I've been so worried about you." Konori had thought that she was responsible for the other girl's actions. It had happened right after she yelled at her on Friday and then hung up on her on Saturday so she was sure that it had been her fault. She had been feeling so guilty these past couple days and was just so glad to see Kuroko in one piece.

Kuroko, confused, simply chose to return her hug and comfort her, "I'm fine, I promise. I'm sorry for making you worry in the first place."

* * *

Misaka, meanwhile, was going to the diner that she and her friends often hung out at after receiving a text from Saten asking her to meet her there. At first she had been hesitant, still embarrassed by what her friend might know and might think. But then she had received a follow up text clarifying that it was urgent and had to do with Kuroko. At that she decided to go, if for no other reason than to tell them that she had found the teleporter and that they didn't have to worry about her any more.

Several minutes later she arrived and walked over to the table where Saten and Uiharu were waiting for her.

"There you are, come here," Saten urged when she saw Misaka walk in. Her voice was full of excitement and she had a laptop sitting in front of her.

"She's here," Uiharu said as Misaka sat down, "now can you please tell us what's going on?" She asked, as confused as Misaka now was.

"Well you know all those Anti-Skill sirens and vans that have been going all around the district for the past couple of days?" She began. Thinking back Misaka had seen far too many to be normal as she had been searching for Kuroko, but she had been too busy at the time to have given it any thought. Still she wondered what it had to do with the teleporter.

"Well," the long haired girl continued, "I was browsing through the usual sites to see if I could find out why and I found this." She said as she pointed to the laptop. On the small screen was one of her favorite urban legend websites. More specifically it was one of the threads on the site, titled 'The Scourge of Crime'. The thread talked about the numerous arrests that had happened over the past couple days had all been the work of a single person, who the poster referred to as 'The Scourge'. This "unknown hero of justice" , as the poster put it, had struck a massive blow against the criminals living in District Seven, arresting over 350 people and stopping or resolving over 200 crimes.

The thread also had a few embedded video links. After briefly summarizing the article for the other two she clicked on one of the links and the three girls watched as the video began. The first thing they saw was an overhead view of 24 teenage boys split into two groups of twelve. Each group wore the same outfit with different colored bandanas.

After a few words of trash talk another person appeared on the scene. It was a young girl in sweatpants and a sweatshirt with pinkish brown pigtails in her hair and a Judgment armband around her shoulder. Then the final nail in the coffin came as they heard Kuroko's voice issue from the speakers, "this is Judgment," she said.

After a few more words and a look between the leaders the action begun. Misaka watched in horror as a massive fireball sped towards Kuroko only to be deflected by her palm. She seemed to completely calm the next second as she casually listed the crimes they had just committed as if her hand hadn't just been hit by a ball of flames.

They continued watching as their friend quickly, calmly, and easily took down one ESPers after the other without a single apparent injury (not even her hand had been hurt from what Misaka had seen). She had defeated about half of them when suddenly the laptop screen was flipped down revealing an angry looking Kuroko standing right in front of them. "Am I interrupting something?" She asked coldly.

Her unexpected entrance startled the other girls. The sudden appearance combined with her frightening look caused Uiharu to literally jump out of her seat and cling onto Saten for some sort of protection. Misaka jerked back suddenly in her seat. Both of these actions caused the involved parties to become unbalanced and they almost toppled to the floor only to be caught by the very person who had caused this reaction in the first place.

Grabbing the hems of her friends' shirts from across the small table with her firm grip and quick reflexes, she gave them a gentle yank towards a more balanced center to allow them to recover.

"Umm…. Thanks," Misaka, the least terrified of the three by Kuroko's fierce eyes, said after a couple of seconds passed in tense silence, "did you already go down to Judgment or did you decide to stop here first?"

"I already stopped by. Apparently I've been suspended for a week due to absence," she lied. In truth she had been suspended but it was for violating one of Judgments principle guidelines, not for missing a few days of work that was volunteer anyway. The guideline stated that Judgment agents cannot make arrests based on past transactions. The only arrests they can make are for crimes directly observed or that are part of a larger investigation which they are handling. While violation of this rule did not invalidate the arrests as it might have had it been an Anti-Skill agent breaking a rule, it was still punishable by suspension or even expulsion from Judgment. The only reason she had gotten off so easily was an understanding Anti-Skill chief and the appeals of both Anti-Skill agent Aiho (who, despite her annoyance at the events, still understood that Kuroko was just trying to help out) and Konori.

"But…" Kuroko continued, her face lightening up, "I suppose that can't be avoided. It's better to focus on happier things," She looked at Uiharu and Saten, "on that note, congratulations you two for finally admitting your feelings for each other."

A couple seconds passed as the influx of new information flooded over them.

"How did you know?" Saten asked, finally breaking the silence. While she had many other questions to ask she decided that this was the best one.

Kuroko had known for a while that the two had had feelings for each other. Her months of searching for a sign of reciprocated affection rom her Onee-sama had taught her to be quite sensitive to those kind of things, and between those two it was obvious. But what had convinced her they had gotten together was the fact that, "You're still clinging onto each other."

[beat]

The two girls' faces immediately filled with a blush as they separated and they got even more embarrassed as Kuroko continued, "I'm happy for the two of you. Make sure you take good care of Uiharu for me," She said to Saten, sounding like a father giving his daughter up for marriage.

Misaka turned towards the other two and opened her mouth to say something, but she realized that if she pried too much Saten might start asking about Misaka's own relationship status. So she remained quiet as the silence stretched on. Inwardly Kuroko was happy that she had so effectively managed to get the topic of the conversation off of her and her exploits and created such an awkward atmosphere. Now with any "luck" the awkwardness would cause the entire conversation to fall apart and everyone to leave.

But Saten seemed to fight against the awkwardness and embarrassment and say, "yeah… we confessed to each other. We aren't dating or anything yet, but it's better now that it's out in the open. We were planning on telling you two soon actually."

"Your courage is admirable Saten. This can't have been easy to talk about," Kuroko complimented her.

"It was harder to do than talk about. You're my best friends, I trust that you won't reject us for something like this," the long haired girl directed towards the level five that was beside her. Unfortunately Misaka was not the best at detecting subtlety and this flew right over her head.

"Your trust is well placed," Kuroko replied simply before turning to Misaka, "anyway I came to tell you that I have to do one more thing before I come home. I'm off to do it now and it shouldn't take me to long so expect me home in about half an hour. Will I see you there?"

"Uh… yeah… I was just heading out, bye guys," she said as she left, growing more and more uncomfortable with the entire situation since Kuroko had first arrived. By this time she had almost completely forgotten the original reason she had gone to meet the two.

"Well I'll be going to I guess," Kuroko said, "bye you two. I'll come and visit you at Judgment Uiharu but you'll have to do most of the work on your own for a while. I trust you can handle it." Then she disappeared, leaving a very confused pair of girls sitting together at a small table in a diner.

* * *

"Things are quieting down for you then?"

"Yes," said the chief of Anti-Skill to the other occupant of the room, "It seems her little anti-crime-spree has ended." His voice held amusement. As opposed to what one might think he would be feeling, indeed opposed to how many of his subordinates did feel, he had thought these past two days to be quite fun. It had been a long time since something had really shaken up his "life".

"Yes… Vyers told me that he tracked her down. She had apparently collapsed in exhaustion. He said that he reunited her with the electro-master."

"I have to say I'm a little surprised at you actually. Normally you're more possessive of your little pawns. Especially that one," the chief teased, "the fact that you would actually let someone else use her is not something I would have expected."

"The situation was too advantageous to my future endeavors to pass up," he explained, "Now have you managed to keep everything covered up?"

"Yes. The other officers know as well as the dark side. There is some leakage due to that one computer programmer but that falls under the acceptable variance. The evidence has been kept a matter of private record and the trials are being processed by Judge Cain to ensure that there is as little outside contact with it as possible."

"Good to hear. I understand the Queen is sitting around at the moment training for the experiment that's coming up with Lammington. We could probably use her to wipe the majority of the officers if such a step becomes necessary and pass it off as training. Other loose ends are being processed by Oak I right now."

"The step with the Queen is unlikely. While most of the officers involved know that they were not the ones who made the arrests very few could identify who it was. Io and Europa are handled the evidence so they are the only ones who saw her. I believe Aiho also knows but she will keep quiet about it."

"Then it seems that plans will go forward as expected."

* * *

[1]:It's really fun to think how some superpowers would be useful in everyday life. Like EtherealFox once suggested in one of his reviews, Uiharu's power of temperature regulation could be very useful in keeping a computer from overheating. Misaka's power could help her keep her phone charged constantly. Kuroko's has just as many, if not more, applications.

[2]: This is the moral to another of Aesop's fables, the Farmer and the Viper.

* * *

Author's Note: This chapter was quite interesting. I wrote it in several different segments that I only later on joined together. I'm not sure about the overall effect but I hope that it doesn't hurt the story.

Anyway…One thing I like about the Raildex universe is that the Board of Directors isn't ever truly laid out. Only 4 of twelve are ever mentioned, meaning the other 8 can be whoever you want them to be and have as much power as you chose. It is not unrealistic for one of them to be in control of Anti-Skill.

* * *

Dedications: This chapter is dedicated to all my anonymous reviewers. I literally can't reply to your reviews and tell you that they mean a lot to me so let me do so here. Every review is enjoyable and I thank you for leaving one.

* * *

Coming Soon: Through the ice and fire; the march of the angel of destruction.


	38. Toaru Kaiteki-sa no Tatchi

Toaru Kaiteki-sa no Tatchi

A Certain Touch of Comfort

* * *

Now that she had checked in with her Onee-sama and narrowly averted a crisis, she began making her way to her final obligation. Once again she teleported to her destination to lessen the strain of walking. While teleporting did strain her mentally, to a higher degree than walking strained her physically, it was easier to recover from mental strain than physical strain.

She teleported all the way to a skyscraper that was located in the middle of the city. This skyscraper was home to the Mendeleev Engineering Company. It was a company that tended to employ ESPers with abilities having to do with chemical reactions. It was a relatively new company, as many Academy City companies were, but it was already a powerhouse in the business world and had shown 200% growth in the past 3 years since its creation. The reason for this growth was the founder and co-founder whose powers could cause and alter Silicon and Carbon bonding respectively. This allowed them to create huge ranges of material that were otherwise very difficult to create. The co-founder, for example, could turn a lump of graphite into a hunk of diamond with ease.

It also happened to be the company that had made Kuroko's armor. She was here to get the combat data from her "scourge" analyzed by the people here as promised. So she walked into the front office and told the secretary that she was here to talk to Garu, not knowing what else she should do. Luckily the secretary understood and told her that she was told to direct her to go down to floor 3B.

Kuroko thanked her and followed her instructions. Getting on the elevator and pressing the button. Upon doing so the button scanned her fingerprint. After a second the elevator said "unclear reading, access denied." Kuroko sighed at this and simply teleported down, skipping the hassle. She arrived on the laboratory floor that she had been on earlier. Garu and surprisingly Itora were on the far end talking. They glanced her way and seemed to acknowledge her presence so she teleported over.

"Ah. Hello Kuroko. Find your way here easily enough?" Garu asked.

"Yes but I did run into some problems with your elevator. Something about an unclear reading," She replied.

"Ah, yes. It has a fingerprint scanner in order to prevent any unauthorized personnel from accessing this floor and contaminating anything. I thought I added you to the accepted roster however," Garu clarified. Indeed he had but the fingerprints he had used were the ones that existed on "public" (or at least accessible by a decent hacker) record that had been taken when Kuroko first entered the city. But since then numerous acid, chemical, and thermal burns that she had received over the years had radically changed the small girl's fingerprints such that the "public" record was unreliable.

"Ah well, no matter," Garu continued, "I take it you are here for data gathering?"

Kuroko nodded, "As promised."

"Very well then, come this way," Garu said, leading her to project room #147. Once there she handed the suit of armor to the man who was there.

"Ah, thank you," the scientist and creator of the suit thanked in a noticeable British accent and slightly strained Japanese, "so how was it?"

"It was fine," Kuroko said in English, recognizing that she could speak that better than he could speak Japanese, "It's as bulletproof as I was promised, though the bullets still hurt very badly. I think the armor cut me a few time too."

"Oh? Where did you get cut miss…"

"Shirai, Kuroko Shirai,"

"Ok. You can call me Q," the scientist said. Garu rolled his eyes. The man was good, one of the best. But he did have his… quirks. This time the quirk had probably worked to their advantage. While the man had gone over budget to indulge in his fantasy (the first prototype, which was nothing but him acting out his desire to invent the ultimate special service gear, had had to be discarded entirely for its impracticality), he had managed to create a very serviceable prototype in the end, even if outside error had caused that one to fail as well (at least until Itora had come in and dealt with it).

"Ok Q. It was on the arm," she told him. He checked the arm and saw that there was a loose fiber that had come free. The fiber was very thin and had probably cause the cuts when it had been pulled across flesh (though at a normal person's strength it shouldn't have been enough to do so).

"Oh, I see the problem, I'll fix it immediately," he said and began, "as for the bullet thing, the padding should protect against the blunt trauma. The Aegis which makes this up has the highest impact hardness of any material ever made or discovered but that just means that the bullet will break before the nano-plates do, the energy from the bullet is still transferred. Getting rid of that would take magic." He chuckled, "if only that existed then things would be so much easier. Anyway this should take around ten minutes and after that I'll have a few more questions for you."

"Until then I'd like to thank you," Itora said, "and to congratulate you on your latest endeavor. From what I understand you really put the armor to good use. 357 criminals arrested in 2 days. An impressive record for someone who puts away people who deserve to get put away."

Kuroko cocked an eyebrow, "you're congratulating me for that? Aren't you technically criminals too?"

"Technically I suppose you're right, and if you were targeting us then I would be far more worried than grateful, but you seem to be making no effort to persecute us. Not only that but your actions have actually helped us. We are legitimate businessmen before we are criminals and businesses are hurt by crime. Unorganized crime at least."

"I see..."

"Though I do admit I find it difficult to imagine your motivation in doing this. I can understand that you are a Judgment agent but this seems a little over the top wouldn't you say?"

"The removal of so foul a brood from off the face of the earth is a service God will bless," Kuroko quoted.

Itora frowned. He did not understand the reference so he assumed it was an actual religious reason. He thought that the idea of persecution of anyone, even criminals, for the sake of religion was a terrible idea as so many past events had shown. He had not pegged the other girl to be particularly religiously zealot, but apparently looks could be deceiving. "I see…" he replied.

Kuroko shrugged, "at least one might think that was the case. Not like I believe in a god anyway, but all my service has done so far is get me kicked out of Judgment and probably get me in trouble with the Dorm Mistress when I get back." These word dispelled Itora's worries and opened up a window of opportunity.

Smiling Itora put his hand on the young teleporter's shoulder, "yes, it is a fairly thankless job isn't it. Or rather it is a fairly thankless position in life. Being so capable yet only ever being seen as a child," he spoke, noting the tensing of her shoulders that accompanied his words, suggesting that they had hit a sensitive spot, "I remember when I was your age. My power is the ability to increase the efficiency of simple and complex systems, including myself. That power propelled me to the top of my class and I soon became far more competent than many of the adults around me. Yet none of them saw me as anything other than a child."

"Unfortunately, no matter how much it frustrated me, I could do nothing about it until I was old enough to become rich and powerful and show all of them just how capable I was. You, though, have managed to prove your capability despite what others may see as a disadvantage. I knew I was better than those adults but you have proof. That is what deserves a congratulation."

"Thank you" Kuroko said, grateful that somebody recognized her actions and her competence.

"In fact," Itora continued, "I have something for you to thank you." He said getting a piece of paper from his pocket and beginning to write, "you said you will get in trouble with your dorm mistress for missing some days correct? Well give her this and youed" He said handing her the piece of paper with writing on it saying that she had been enlisted for an official experiment for the past two days, pardoning her absence. At the bottom was Itora's signature with B.O.D. next to it.

"Huh?" she asked in confusion.

"As a member of the Board of Directors that signature holds substantial power, it should get you out of trouble easily."

Kuroko looked at him, confused by this kind gesture. She did not raise her suspicions however, simply saying, "thank you."

"Don't mention it," Itora said with a smile on his face as the teleporter was called into the other room to finish the examination.

"Business partner eh," Garu piped in, "I think that was a little outside the relationship of a business partner."

"Diplomacy is never a bad idea. But I suppose you're right in a sense. I still see her as a kid, even knowing what she is like. And when you see a kid looking that sad you just want to comfort them don't you?" the businessman half-lied.

"A little, but I prefer animals to kids."

Itora shrugged, "there's no accounting for taste I suppose. Now shall we get back to business?"

* * *

Shortly after that Kuroko made her way back to the dorm, armor in hand. She stopped shortly before she reached the dorm and put her glasses on. Then she turned on the tracker for the dorm mistress. It seemed that she was waiting inside the building, probably for her, probably to snap her neck like a twig. She had perhaps been unreasonable when she predicted Konori's reaction but she knew that her view of the dorm mistress was realistic.

She cautiously walked in and was, predictably, immediately assailed. Luckily she already had her plan worked out. Instead of standing there and letting her neck break or pulling the same move that Kuro had pulled (an easy possibility for her) and making her angrier, she teleported away to her room, leaving only the excuse note behind.

Once she got into the room she immediately collapsed onto the bed. She was tired and in considerable pain from the medication she had taken. The pills aided muscle fatigue by rebuilding the muscles broken in exercise that were normally regenerated over a number of days in a matter of hours instead. However this took the soreness that you experienced over those couple of days and compressed it into a 5-8 hour window, with a little extra suffering for good measure. It had taken all her concentration to teleport for so long despite the burgeoning amount of pain.

Her head buried in the soft mattress she whimpered at the ever increasing pain. Then she felt a soothing pressure on her head. "Are you all right Kuroko?" Misaka asked. She had come home a while ago and until around a minute or two ago she had been reading the article that Saten had shown her, trying to get a better understanding about what had happened over the past couple of days. Now that she had a better picture she was equal parts horrified, curious, and oddly proud of her girlfriend.

"I'm fi-" she began but Misaka interrupted her, saying simply, "the truth." Kuroko sighed in response and said, "I'm mostly fine. My muscles are aching and I'm out of pain pills."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Misaka asked. Though she expected a ridiculous and likely lecherous answer, she thought that she should ask anyway.

"hmm…" Kuroko said, considering the answer seriously. She remembered back in the day when this was a far more regular occurance and recalled the doctors suggestions (though she took very few of them), "a massage might help."

Misaka was not sure if this was lecherous or not. She knew enough about this kind of thing to know that massage was a recommended treatment but was still wary, "I don't exactly know how to give one," she said cautiously.

"There's a book on massage theory on my desk along with the other medical texts. Several of the principles are useful in precision martial arts so I've been studying it," she said truthfully. She saw and exploited the more perverse potential of this but none of her words were lies.

'What a convenient coincidence,' Misaka thought. Still it was not too implausible… "If I agree then I want you to tell me about what you were doing over these past two days."

A few seconds passed before the teleporter answered, "ok. If you say that I can trust you then I have nothing to hide. "

Sighing Misaka stood up and walked to Kuroko desk and browsed the selection of medical texts until she found the book in question and plucked it from the pile. She flicked through it until she found the section on massage basics. She also found a section about the application of an electrical current during the massage to enhance its effects that she skimmed through before returning to the previous section.

She read a bit then took a seat on the bed and put the book down, keeping it open so she could still reference it. Then she turned back to the other girl who was still lying on the bed on the same spot. She then immediately turned away. "Put your clothes back on Kuroko," she said frustrated and flustered.

"You can't massage while I'm dressed," She pointed out, her logic as infuriatingly impeccable as ever, "I kept my panties on at least and considering what you've already seen today, my back isn't too bad is it?"

"I…you…just… uggh," Misaka sputtered, shaking her head and looking back to her. Then she noticed something. Though her back still had several bruises, her sides, which earlier today had been quite badly bruised, were clear. "Kuroko…" she began, confused and slightly concerned.

"Don't worry about the bruises, they don't hurt, just be gentle in that region," Kuroko said.

"it's not those ones I'm talking about," she said, placing her hand on Kuroko's side gently. Kuroko didn't recoil though the region was still quite tender.

"Coagulant," Kuroko elaborated, "it helps dissolve the bruise topped with a concealer to keep it hidden. Whether or not I'm ashamed about my injuries it would be best to keep them from the others or else they'll just get needlessly worried. Oh, but of course that doesn't include you anymore Onee-sama. I promise I'll share every part of my body with you, no exceptions."

"Must you make everything perverted?" Misaka said, exasperated as she put her three quarters of the way up the teleporter's back and felt her heartbeat. The asymmetry had calmed down but it was still beating unnaturally fast, betraying the girl's excitement, despite the calmness in her voice.

The other girl didn't answer. And Misaka began her massage, gently rubbing the other girl's shoulders where the muscle spasms that she had observed earlier were still present and quite severe. "So what were have you been doing these past two days."

"Having a childish temper tantrum and taking it out on the criminals in this region."

"Why?" Misaka asked as she added the tiny electric current to her movements. It was quite hard to concentrate on that, the massage, and the conversation all at once while at the same time trying even harder to not concentrate on what exactly she was doing.

"My work at Judgment is one of the only things that make me feel useful and since I thought that you were mad at me for being such a burden I assumed that if I could prove that I wasn't, say by arresting a lot of people, I thought I could earn your forgiveness. I now know that this was faulty reasoning though," she said honestly.

"And these people, did they deserve to be arrested?" Misaka asked. This was one thing that had worried her. While several of the people definitely deserved to be arrested, such as the gangsters who attacked her and the people involved in the other major crimes, "how could you have possibly found that many criminals by chance?"

"They deserved it. And I didn't find them by chance. I had help."

"Whose help?"

"I can't tell you. It is not because I don't trust you but because my source would rather remain anonymous and it is my duty as a Judgment member to respect their wishes," Kuroko said. It was probably the truth, she hadn't exactly asked but she doubted he'd want her to tell anyone he was aiding her all this time. She also didn't want her Onee-sama to find out about her less-than-legal activities recently. She had decided to be more honest with her but that did not mean she wanted to tell her everything.

"I see…" The electro-master said as her hands moved to Kuroko's upper back and continued the massage, going more gently to prevent exacerbating her injuries. She consulted the book again and again to help refine her still quite clumsy technique. But Kuroko didn't exactly care about how good she was at this (she would improve over time if she could use this excuse again) all she cared about was that it was happening in the first place. Her Onee-samas gentle, if somewhat hesitant, touch was the teleporter's personal heaven and she was smiling widely in pure bliss.

"So you went for two straight days. Did you even sleep? Where did you stay?"

"I slept a little… but It's hard sleeping without you," Kuroko admitted. Misaka understood. Her own sleep had been considerably restless since Kuroko had gone as well, both by the worry that had plagued her constantly and the teleporter's lack of presence. She had been a bit like a security blanket to Misaka these past few weeks and suddenly having her vanish like that was difficult on her, even unconscious.

"Why didn't you just come back earlier…" Misaka said, trying hard to keep the emotions out of her voice. But Kuroko felt the hurt and anger and worry through her hands which were rubbing her lower back quite hard along the lines of the scars on her back.

"Because I'm an idiot who, in trying to not hurt you, managed to hurt you even more."

"You're not an idiot. If one of us is guilty of that it's me," she said, recognizing that what Kuroko had said was a crime she committed regularly, "you need to stop blaming yourself for everything."

"Blaming other people is an exercise in futility," the teleporter explained in her chivalric tone that she used when she was acting tough, adding in her mind, 'I deserve any guilt I receive.' However all of this posturing was somewhat nullified by the cute, childish squeak she gave the next moment as Misaka began, somewhat reluctantly, massaging her thighs.

"What are you? The Buddha?" Misaka joked, somewhat comforted by the return of the other girl's normal, haughty tone.

"Nope. Just a knight tilting at windmills," she answered after making several other noises that she tried hard to mute in the mattress of the bed.

"And here I was thinking you were the damsel in distress, considering I had to haul you back here after you collapsed."

"Come now Onee-sama… is distress ever a word you associate with me?"

"I have more trouble with the damsel part actually…" Misaka snarked as she finished up the massage. "feeling better?" she asked.

Kuroko pushed herself up to face her Onee-sama, "much. You did very well. Was this your first time giving a massage?"

Turning away with a blush, "yes, now put some clothes on please," she said.

Kuroko grinned and sat up, giving the electro-master a tight hug and a peck on the cheek. "Come now Onee-sama, we're lovers now. You need to get used to this."

"Not yet I don't," the older girl answered, pushing the teleporter away as she turned even further around with an even brighter blush, "now get dressed or else."

"Very well my love, if you insist," she said as she stood up and went over to her closet, pulling on one of her very revealing negligees that she hadn't worn in weeks. She had missed the feel of the soft, breathable silk.

Of course it was hardly better than being naked in terms of coverage, and as she climbed into bed besides her girlfriend the older girl began to rethink her decision to go and retrieve the other girl.

"I love you Onee-sama," the teleporter said as she got settled into the bed.

If she hadn't retrieved the girl then she might never have heard those words again. "I love you too Kuroko,' she replied, all the regret vanishing in a moment, "good night," she said and turned off the lights.

Once again Shiro found herself in the world of dreams and memories, resting on a dais on an infinite plane of clock towers. She would rest soon and bask in the hopefully pleasant dreams that awaited her, but for now she had something that she needed to do. Something quite unpleasant.

She sighed as she focused on the distance, locating what she was looking for. When she finally spotted one of the crumbling towers in the far distance she mentally opened the doors pulled it towards her, much as she had done before. Soon she was drawn into the threshold of the ruined building.

Inside it was just as crumbled as it was outside. While the walls were lined with clocks and plaques like the other one many of those clocks were either stopped all together, spinning wildly, or completely fallen apart. Several plaques were cracked or shattered.

It has been quite a while since I have gone through my childhood memories, she said. She had never liked thinking back to these times but she needed to know what in her life was real suffering and what was imagined suffering. Perhaps all her life's unhappiness was caused by her insanity. Either way she needed to know.

So she touched one of the plaques with a strange feeling that this was what she was looking for. Even though the memories only label was their date and time of occurrence, she could tell with a simple glace the vague details of the memory and from there she could go into a full recollection.[1]

This plaque that she had chosen was one of the few that were still intact, though it was still slightly cracked and the date was hard to read. It looked to be when she was around 4 years old.

She found herself back in her childhood residence. She took a moment and absorbed the sensations that she was experience. Her face felt cold but her body felt warm, though slightly heavy. Her feet had an unpleasant wetness to them and her hands were numb.

Her nose was cold and running and she couldn't smell a thing but the taste of fresh, clean water was on her tongue. She was looking up in the air to a cloudy sky.

Then she looked down to see her yard covered with a thin blanket of snow. And perched on the bare, snow covered sakura tree that was in front of her was a large black raven standing perfectly still, still enough to have gathered a tuft of snow of top of its head.

She heard herself giggle at this sight, "Hiya Prometheus," she found herself saying, "Come to keep me company?"

"To watch" The bird corrected, the movement of speaking and bobbing on the branch caused a lump of snow from higher on the tree to fall onto the bird. Kuroko laughed at this.

"you look so silly Prometheus," she said with a grin, then she sighed and recited, "white white snow on a black black bird."

Then suddenly Prometheus disappeared as a voice called out. "Kuroko."

She turned around to see the maid that took care of her[2] standing in the doorway. The maid opened her mouth to say more but Kuroko suddenly found herself awakened by a sharp pain that coursed through her.

She found herself buried deep in her Onee-sama's embrace, almost being smothered by it. Occasional sparks caused jolts of minor pain but that was not what had waken her up. She tried to identify what was hurting but the pain that had woken her up was gone now.

Shrugging it off she chose instead to revel in the closeness she had with her Onee-sama right now. It had been three days since they had snuggled like this and far longer since she had worn something thin enough to truly feel the warmth of her one true love through it. With these thoughts in her head, satisfaction that her mission had been successful, and comfort that every little suffering in her life must have been imagined, she drifted off to a nice, peaceful sleep.

* * *

Kuro found herself relieved that she had managed to wake Shiro up before the rest of that memory had played out. When she had last gone through she had had far less power than she did now. In those days she could alter Shiro's perception of a memory but not a memory itself. She still couldn't alter memories, only repress them and hide them from Shiro. It was what she had down to the original memory of that phone conversation that had been the catalyst of her help to Shiro, but it had not been done to anything else in fear that Shiro may begin to suspect something.

Normally Shiro kept her distance from her memories of childhood so Kuro had thought it would be safe. It was, perhaps, not the best plan, but it was all for Shiro's sake.

It was all for Shiro's sake.

It was all for Shiro's sake.

She kept repeating those words to herself. It was all she could do. Kuro's job wasn't to make Shiro happy it was to keep her from being sad or hurt. She was Shiro's guardian, the knight of the knight. That was what she was. She was meant to wipe Shiro's tears not to make her smile.

But no matter just how much she told herself this she knew in the back of her head that her job was not that of a guardian.

She was Kuro, she hurt people.

* * *

[1]: Kuroko doesn't have photographic memory or anything like it. This is actually a trick that other people use. The memory is far more powerful than most people give it credit it is simply humans ability to link to those memories that cause confusion. If someone created a place where their memories were reliably sorted like this (as some people do, mostly people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder but not always) then it could be like this for anyone.

[2]: In chapter 33 (Toaru Kuro no Honto) I mentioned a butler that looked after her rather than a maid. This was not a mistake

* * *

Author's Note: After ****** talked about the Queen last chapter many people seemed excited about her imminent return. Rest assured the Jericho Arc is almost at an end and after that there will only be a few chapters until the last part with the Queen begins. Despite this the Queen herself doesn't make an appearance till late on simply because there isn't really a way to do so. Her power is mind control and is useless against Misaka. In a direct battle she would lose in an instant This is why I can't really include her much in here at all. She is good villain material but not good enemy material.

Also in response to Ashuras's review, Touma will never have more than a cameo in my fic for the simple reason that I do not believe I could write him well, so I am avoiding the risk altogether. And even if he did he couldn't do anything about Kuroko's state of mind as it is purely biological not magical or ESPer (ESPic? ESPive?). Even his motivational skills would be useless because she does not want to be helped, especially by anyone other than Kuro or Misaka. She would probably just kick his ass for bothering her and throw him in jail (again).

* * *

Dedications: This chapter is dedicated to a new reader and reviewer, PokeRescue18. Thanks for the reviews and I hope you are enjoying my writing.

* * *

Coming Soon: The Seal of the Six and the royal guardian.


	39. Toaru Kiken no Oto

Toaru Kiken no Oto

A Certain Sound of Danger

* * *

After a far more restful night's sleep than she had had in the past couple days, Misaka woke up with a yawn. As usual she found herself coiled around her bedmate, enveloping her like a snake around its prey. The slow beating of the younger girl's heart and the rhythmic breathing suggested that she was still asleep. She carefully uncoiled though still held on to Kuroko, lest she start her flailing.

She glanced over to the clock and saw that it was still quite early in the morning. After how tired Kuroko had seemed yesterday she guessed that it would still be a while till she woke up.

Misaka sighed. Though she had said otherwise, she supposed the other girl was a bit of a burden. Over the past few days especially, in fact, ever since they had returned from the Queen incident. Since then it had been one crisis after another between them, and that was on top of the conflict coming from outside, from school and STORM. At this point most people would begin to wonder if the relationship was worth all the trouble it caused.

Not Misaka. Misaka was accustomed to trouble, she didn't mind it. In fact she would likely have had a harder time had there not been all these troubles. Kuroko was so aggressive that, in normal circumstances, she would have completely dominated the relationship, something that the older girl wouldn't be entirely at ease with. The electro-master was even less comfortable than most when it came to allowing herself to show vulnerability, so having Kuroko do the sorts of things that Misaka had been doing to her the past couple days would have been almost impossible for the older girl.

Things were actually easier than they would have been without all these troubles, relationship wise.

Speaking of troubles… she wasn't making too much progress against STORM, or rather Honogun's assets. She wasn't accustomed to attacking a corporation or group of people and she wasn't sure about it in general. From what she knew it was hardly a legitimate group but that didn't mean every employee was evil did it? That fact made it hard for her to take any particularly destructive actions, which were most of what Misaka could do.

Suddenly the heartbeat of the little teleporter she held in her arms began to speed up. While Misaka wasn't very good at reading expressions by looking, she could tell many things by feeling the flow of electricity through the body. Excitement was one of the easiest things to tell, it made the steady tempo of a person's heartbeat speed up until it was almost as fast as a heavy metal drum solo.

And if she was awake that only meant one thing Misaka sighed internally and counted down in her head. '3…2…1…" Suddenly her lips were enveloped in Kuroko's.

It happened every morning like clockwork. If Kuroko woke up first then it would happen a few seconds after the electro-master had gained a shred of lucidity and begun to open her eyes. That was usually enough of a surprise to wake her up the rest of the way. However, if Misaka woke up first then it would happen precisely 20 seconds after the teleporter woke up. She told herself that it was an inescapable thing that she just needed to accept and endure it each morning despite the embarrassment it caused her. She assured herself that it was an annoyance that she had hardly missed these past couple days.

The older girl often lied to herself…

"Good morning my beautiful Onee-sama," she chirped in that perky voice that Misaka did not know how she managed to produce so early in the morning. She nuzzled the older girl tenderly, "it's so wonderful to be back in your arms…"

"yeah yeah," Misaka said, trying to sound irritated but the embarrassment was so strong it was leaking into her voice regardless. Though that was hardly a necessary thing as it was made obvious enough by the deep blush that tinted her cheeks, "now can you get off of me."

"Sure thing Onee-sama," Kuroko agreed, though she figured she could probably stall for more time if she kept on talking, "Would you like me to cook you something for breakfast?"

After a fairly loud word of agreement from her stomach, which only caused the electro-master to blush a deeper shade of red, she nodded in agreement. Kuroko replied, "what would you like? Omelets? Fish?" she began, then she hastily mumbled, "me," under her breath and continued, "soup? Rice?"

"What was that third thing?" Misaka asked.

"The third thing?" the younger girl repeated with a grin, then she kissed her Onee-sama again, deeper this time. When she separated the next second she whispered seductively in the older girl's ear, "excellent choice."

The next second, the teleport began to resemble a breakfast food far more as she was thoroughly fried by the electro-master who stood up and stormed into the bathroom the next second. Despite the pain Kuroko smiled. It had been a while since her Onee-sama had last used her love whip against her and it had certainly been a while since she had been that harsh with it. Until now she had obviously thought of Kuroko as being too fragile to handle the shocks, especially since the older girl had discovered her injuries. Kuroko was glad things had gone back to normal and that Misaka was once again acknowledging her ability to endure her shocks.

With that done she stood back up, shaking off the numbness in her skin. Misaka's constant low-volt shocks that she had been during her sleep had helped to acclimate her muscles towards the numbness so it was becoming easier and easier to regain feeling and muscle control. She went into the kitchen and began preparing breakfast for her Onee-sama, being sure to cook her favorite with as much love and care as she could.

It was weird. Before this spring she had hardly ever cooked for someone, even herself, but now she was at least proficient enough to earn her girlfriend's praise, though one could argue about the difficulty of that task. For a good portion of her life she had barely even eaten cooked food at all. But when she began planning to become her Onee-sama's roommate she had been sure to learn how to cook and do other household chores that she felt would be necessary to learn given her role as her Onee-sama's one and only.

Breakfast was almost done when Misaka came out of the bathroom, her body and hair still slightly damp from her shower. "So the offer was actually legitimate," she noted as she saw Kuroko cooking.

"But of course," Kuroko replied, "I will always take care of you and do what I can to make you happy." She finished cooking and plated out the food, handing it to the other girl with a smile dripping with love and care.

"Thanks," Misaka said, blushing slightly again at Kuroko's words and smile. "Aren't you going to have any?" she asked as she sat down at the table with the teleporter.

"Sure," the younger girl responded, the she opened her mouth wide.

"No, I'm not feeding you" Misaka answered, as she took her first bite. Kuroko's food was as delicious as always, but not even the bribe of good food would make her degrade herself like that. Not again...

Kuroko had expected as much but she didn't mind. She hadn't served herself up any for a reason. Any solid meal would probably just make her feel nauseous. She had already taken her supplements to ensure that her body would recover from the recovery that had gone on through the night. The bruises and cuts, even the stab wound in her shoulder, were completely healed and her muscles were completely rebuilt. Still she kept her mouth open expectantly despite her Onee-sama's refusal. She did this for several minutes, unnerving Misaka more and more until finally she gave up and shoved the piece of omelet that she was clutching with her chopsticks into the other girl's mouth saying, "there, happy now?"

After chewing and swallowing the piece of food she smiled, "I'm always happy when I'm around you."

A few seconds passed as Misaka wondered how to respond. However Kuroko beat her to it and asked, "what are your plans for today?"

"Just hanging around town. Why?"

"I was thinking about going and visiting Jericho."

"Who?" the older girl asked. The name sounded familiar but she had forgotten.

"My childhood friend."

"Oh yeah… " she replied, remembering the incident a week or two ago and the jealousy that it had caused in her. That jealousy was why the other girl was asking in the first place, she wanted to make sure that her jealousy prone girlfriend was fine with it. In truth Misaka was still a little bit uneasy about the whole matter but she didn't want Kuroko to know that she was jealous, not that she was or anything cause she wasn't, but she wouldn't want her to think that at least. So, with a shrug, she replied, "yeah. Do whatever you want."

"Good, thank you Onee-sama," the younger girl said with a smile and left to call Jericho to say that she would be coming over soon. As she talked Misaka left for the rest of the morning to do whatever it was she was doing.

Jericho said that she would be ready in a couple of hours so Kuroko burned 100 minutes or so tending to a related and very important matter. When she was done with that she headed to her friend's house, deciding that foot would be best rather than teleportation.

* * *

But as Kuroko walked towards and into the apartment complex that Jericho lived in she felt an odd chill run down the back of her neck. Something clearly wasn't right. She teleported up to the floor that Jericho's apartment was on and retrieved the tonfa from her belt. As she drew closer to the door she noticed it was slightly ajar. A glance at the frame revealed that it had been shattered along the places that held the locks. Someone had kicked the door in recently.

Kuroko entered the apartment gripping the tonfa tight in her hands and looked around. There was no sign of disturbance or a struggle. The only thing that looked like it had been disturbed at all was a hunk of plastic that had fallen off the table and was lying on the floor. After searching the apartment for Jericho only to find her gone Kuroko picked up the hunk of plastic and saw that it was a clock. It was a standard electrical clock that looked as if it had stopped ticking.

Most people would disregard this seemingly useless detail, but to Kuroko the significance of a broken clock was massive. Last time she had been here it had been functioning and the batteries in these types of clocks were supposed to last for years. Then she saw the little wording under the center of the face reading "Quartz". Most types of clocks were quartz clocks and this detail would have once again been an insignificant detail to anyone else but Kuroko knew better. She knew the ingenuity of her friend, especially under stressful situations. While Kuroko didn't know the specifics of how quartz clocks worked she knew it had to do with quartz's resonance. With her powers Jericho could cancel the crystal's vibrations or even shatter it if she had the inclination.

She examined the time and saw that it read 10:23. Given that she had talked to her that morning at 9:00 or so she guessed that it was AM. Given that it was now past 11:00 it means that she had kidnapped for a little under an hour. Kuroko searched the desk more thoroughly and finally found a little scrap of paper under the keyboard upon which was scrawled a hastily written note that simply read "Damsel" and under that was the number "2.1195".

"Kuro, why is this familiar?" She asked, remembering the word from somewhere but not having enough time to meditate on it at the moment. Kuro however could do so far quicker and more easily than she could.

* * *

Quickly finding the memory, Kuro pulled it up. It had been when they were younger, just shortly after becoming friends. The two young girls were seated on a bench and Jericho was sniffling. It looked like she had just gotten done crying over something. Kuroko was comforting her, "It's ok, it's ok. I'm here Asura-chan. I found you, you don't need to worry any more. The knight always finds and rescues the damsel doesn't she?"

Now Kuroko remembered. This memory had been after the two of them went out together. Kuroko had gotten ahead of herself and the girls had gotten separated for quite a while until finally Kuroko had found her away from the crowd clinging to a lamppost. As soon as she saw Kuroko she began crying, but not until then. She had always been like that. Under normal circumstances Jericho was one of the most timid people Kuroko had ever met. But as you put more and more stress onto her she became tougher and tougher, only reverting back once the stress was gone.

It probably had something to do with her family. Jericho's father had been a police chief for the dangerous city of Osaka and a good one at that. He had been assigned there to deal with the city's rampant Yakuza problem and thus faced mortal danger on a daily basis. He was a cautious man and taught his children to be the same. He never knew when he might not come home from work alive or when his family might be used as a tool or hostage against him.

While this had taught Jericho and her older brother how to stay calm under extreme duress it had also negatively affected the impressionable young girl. While her brother was too old at the time to have been greatly influenced by the danger lectures of their father Jericho had come away from it slightly paranoid and very distrustful of human nature. She was shy because every time she was in a crowd she was afraid that someone might be a dangerous criminal just looking for a chance to strike. Kuroko was the only person in this city (other than her brother but he worked for Anti-Skill in a different district and she rarely saw him) whom she trusted.

On the plus side, however, he had taught her how to deal with many different types of emergencies, including kidnappings. She knew that resisting was pointless and a bad idea but she also knew that leaving behind a message was important to make sure that people understood what happened and if possible help to locate you.

Back then, after getting lost, she had proceeded to an easily visible marker away from the crowd and stayed put, like she was supposed to. But Kuroko had an idea of how they could make it easier to find each other if they ever got seperated, "Next time you get lost just make a noise with your power."

"But that's not one of the procedures daddy taught me," she had said, ever trusting of her father, even after the divorce.

"So. It's a new procedure. Procedure:Damsel. You can still do one of the other things just make a noise that I can hear, or better yet one that I can't hear. I have that app on my phone that you use for practice that can detect low-frequency or high-frequency sounds. Just do one of those and I'll find you in a jiffy."

Jericho nodded and the memory ended. Kuroko was surprised that she had remembered that after all this time but it did make things easier.

* * *

Now that she had the time it had happened and a method for locating the other girl it would be quite simple to find the distressed damsel with all of her new toys.

First was the matter of finding where they had gone. This street wasn't monitored but several of the nearby streets were. Accessing the cameras manually was easy with her Judgment access codes and the advanced encryption software of the system's computer allowed her to do so without raising any alarms. Kuroko knew that getting Anti-Skill involved wasn't a good idea. She could handle this better by herself, she had proven that much over the past couple of days.

Narrowing the timeframe down to between 10:24-10:26, she quickly analyzed the footage until she saw a white van wheeling down the street. Making her way into the surveillance network in the region, she followed the van's progress until she couldn't any more. But still it narrowed down the search tremendously. Now she teleported to the region and tuned her suit's earpiece to search for sounds of 2.1195 Hz with maximum sensitivity. Immediately she received a weak response from the north and began making her way there. Low frequency sounds could travel farther than high frequency sounds so even though the distance was great she could still find it. Finally she arrived at the place. It looked like a large, multi-story parking garage. She stood fifty meters or so away from it, taking out her earpiece and surveying it from behind a corner.

* * *

"Boss it looks like we have a visitor," the man who was watching the monitors said as a young girl suddenly appeared on one of the alley cameras. She seemed to be checking out the building.

The boss turned and looked, smiling when he saw who it was. "Well well, the scourge herself... let's see if she can handle this..." He said as he picked a briefcase off from on top of a table set in the middle of one of the levels. He hooked up a microphone to the sound systems that were scattered throughout the building and then flipped the switch.

* * *

Suddenly Kuroko fell to her knees in pain as the horrible sound rang through her ears. The next second the pain stopped.

"_Ahh, unfortunate_," Kuro remarked as she took over Shiro's body for her while the capacity down, intensity amplified by the numerous speakers, completely depowered her. Kuro peered around the corner and saw that four of the thugs from the building where charging at her position, guns in hand. She took half a second to take the ribbons out of her hair as she thought about the situation.

It would be foolish to charge them. While she was wearing the chest armor, every other piece of armor she had dropped back off at her secret place. Not even Shiro's childhood friend was worth the risk of charging 4 armed men with that little protection so Kuro turned around.

What are you doing, Shiro cried from inside her head, Why are you running away? Aren't you going to rescue her?

"_Yes I am," _Kuro responded. But despite her agreement she took off down the alley and away from the people and the garage at high speed. Finally when the people were just rounding the corners she reached the dead-end at the end of the alley from which she could now go either right towards the garage or left away from it. Kuro chose neither. Now going at her full speed she began running right up the wall of the building, getting around eight feet of elevation before gravity began to pull her back down. Before it had the chance she pushed hard off the wall, jumping away from it and granting her just enough extra height to grab onto the scaffolding of the fire escape of one of the buildings across from it. From there she climbed up the fire escape onto the roof of the building while the thugs were trying to figure out where she had gone.

From the roof she surveyed the area and figured out the best route to the garage. She quickly identified it and retrieved something from out of her weapons belt. Then she began running again, vaulting over and under obstacles and leaping across rooftops at a blinding speed. However now the final jump was in her sight and the 10 meter gap was too large for even professional long jumpers to do. Still she ran towards it, and just before she reached the edge she chucked a small cylindrical device in front of her and used that as a stepping stone for her jump. The moment her foot left the cylinder a high speed jet of fluid shot out of both ends, propelling her far enough to catch the edge of the building and hoist herself up.

She was disappointed to have sacrificed one of those liquid grenades to do so but she had made it onto the roof of the building. But the now dripping wet girl wasn't alone, two other goons, one armed with a pistol the other with a knife, were standing on the roof and had witnessed the entire thing. Of course now they were terrified. One of their colleagues had told them of the viscous little girl that had arrested so many of their Skill-Out brothers in District seven. Now the legendary scourge stood in front of them, not even slowed down by their secret weapon.

The one armed with a pistol was shaking as he took aim. Kuro used this fear, and the inaccuracy that it was sure to bring, to her advantage and began running towards him, zigging back and forth to provide a hard target. He got off two shots which both flew wide before the girl was upon him, grabbing him and the other thug by the throat and throwing them off of the building where they would have died had a conveniently placed dumpster full of soft things not been at the bottom to break their fall.

Now that she had gotten rid of those two she began making her way down. She still had 3 floors until she reached the one where Jericho was, or at least where the sound had been strongest. This floor had 4 people but now she had had enough time to draw one of her tonfa so she was hardly at a disadvantage, especially considering these people weren't armed with guns. Ferociously she charged the first and closest thug. However he was ready. He was more highly trained than most of his buddies in martial arts and was not afraid of the scourge that stood in front of him. He readied his attack and swung at the girl.

Kuro saw him draw his arm back, a signal that he was about to attack. She didn't have enough time to stop and her forward momentum prevented her from moving to the side fast enough. So she did the next best thing and used the fact that the soles of her shoes were still soaking wet to slide along the ground under his attack. As she slid past him she swung her tonfa at his legs sending him to the ground.

Unfortunately this landed her right in the range of another thug who swung at her. Rather than blocking this she swung at him in return, their fists colliding in midair. Despite the size difference Kuro's strength was far greater than his and her knuckles had been replaced with more durable artificial ones after the third time she had broken them as a child. This caused her punch to easily break the other man's knuckles, making him recoil in pain.

She silenced him with a quick hit over the back of the head as the other two charged at her. She dropped low, shifting her center of gravity low to the ground. When the came within range she sprang forward, dealing powerful blows right to their stomachs, knocking them both out.

With this floor done she proceeded to the next one. She had barely made it down the ramp when she saw this floors opposition, a man kneeling a few meters away with an rpg propped on his shoulder aimed directly for her. He grinned and fired before she had a chance to react. Had Shiro been in charge she could have teleported away, but Kuro could do no such thing and the rocket hit her directly in the chest, knocking her back several steps as it bounced off.

What the man had forgotten was that both the rocket and the warhead did not activate immediately, instead waiting till they had reached eleven meters before the rocket went off and the impact fuse was activated. The fuse was also set to go off in four and a half seconds after firing, despite the distance travelled, a fact which Kuro both knew and, despite her cracked sternum and bruised lungs, used to her advantage. Recovering her balance, she picked up the warhead and threw it hard towards her attacker. It overshot her target considerably but the resulting explosion still knocked him and the other two people on this floor unconscious.

Now Kuro knew that they were waiting though. So this time she used her glasses to look down and locate the enemy. There were six people all but one of whom had guns. The sixth was smaller and near the far side of the building away from the down ramp. One of the others was standing next to her, aiming a gun at her head, keeping her hostage.

She couldn't go down the ramp it seemed, but luckily this was a parking garage and there was more than one way down. She ran towards the end of the garage where Jericho was being held one floor below and leaped out of the mostly open sides of the building. As she jumped she twisted around and grabbed hold of the lip of the half wall, scraping some skin from her hands but allowing her to swing downward at speed and kick the gunman threatening Jericho directly in the head as Kuro swung herself down into the next floor. The other four turned around when they heard this, their guns ready to fire. Luckily they were clustered in one big group so, picking up the shelf full of electronic equipment near her, she tossed it across the room. Despite weighing several hundred pounds it soared several meters across the room landing on the unfortunate gangsters.

With the central control bank shattered, the high pitched sound of capacity down stopped. In the newly established quiet she heard a ruckus as serveral more gangster began climbing up the ramp. The bottom levels had been even more heavily guarded than the top and Kuro wasn't in the best of shape to face them down.

This proved to be unnecessary however as the cement ceiling above the up ramp crumbled and fell down, blocking the way as the building began to shake. Kuro turned to Jericho who was standing completely still. But Kuro could see the faint movement of the dust in the air that suggested that she was using her power.

* * *

Though her face was taciturn Kuro could see confusion in Jericho's eyes and her voice trembled as she said, "Shiro-chan?"

Kuro nodded, "_yes Jericho-chan, it's me,_" she said as she extended her hand to the white haired girl. However Jericho didn't take the hand, instead she took a step back.

"no... you're not Shiro-chan...you may look like her but you sound different... who are you?" She asked, noting the difference in cadence and tone of this person's voice. Even though this person looked like her best friend and had saved her from her kidnappers she was still suspicious. Not all rescuers work for your benefit and someone could have easily shape shifted into the other girl's form. So right now she would maintain this frequency, which would shake the building and worry the other people but wasn't enough to destroy the stone.

Or it least it shouldn't have been. But the building was old and already falling apart. This caused a large chuck of cement right over Jericho's head to break off and begin falling towards her. The only warning she had was the large crack that happened just before it fell, so she couldn't avoid it. Kuro had faster reflexes however and, snatching the Capacity Down suitcase as she leaped forward, grabbing the white haired girl and getting her out of the way just in time. But the pair had just barely landed when several more cracks sounded, too many to avoid all of them. So Kuro hoisted Jericho into her arms and jumped out of the window. She jumped towards the building opposite the garage and used the wall to slow her fall but she still hit the ground fast. She twisted to ensure the smaller, less durable girl she held in her arms would be on top when she hit so she wouldn't suffer any injuries.

"Shiro-chan," Jericho called worried, despite knowing that it wasn't her friend.

"_I'm fine_," Kuro said. Her tailbone had probably received a minor injury but she was used to falls like that and knew how to minimize the impact stress. She let go of the other girl and stood up, "_Come on, we're not out of trouble yet. I promise when we're safe I'll explain."_

Even the somewhat paranoid Jericho knew that this was the best thing to do and sticking with the person who had rescued her and saved her life to her own injury was the best chance she had. So she walked down the alley with the person who looked like her friend.

They had almost made it to the end when a group of 4 gangsters rounded the corner. Kuro began sliding into her fighting stance but before she could blink the person in front was holding a sword to her throat. The man in front of her was somewhat short and agile, dressed in black jacket and pants with a black shirt with a white-cross pattern. He looked her in the eyes then looked at her shoulder. He furrowed his brow for a second then sheathed his sword. "let's go," he said to his men as he turned around.

"You kidding?" said one of them, raising his gun towards the two, "I ain't letting them escape." He said and pulled the trigger. However the other man was faster and sliced the gun neatly in two with his ninjato.

"I said 'we're going,'" he ordered once again, turning his head slightly to face the rebel and glaring at him. As he turned Kuro saw that the headband he wore had a metal emblem right in the middle of it. Then she realized that she was still wearing the symbol the ninja had given her those many days ago. Though the symbol was different from the one on his head. He then went round the other corner of the alley, followed by his scared subordinates.

Kuro simply went with it and ran down the other alley, towing Jericho behind her. They ran until Kuro decided they were safe. Then she turned to the other girl who was horrendously out of breath even though she herself hadn't broken a sweat.

* * *

"Who...are...you..." she managed to gasp out.

Kuro took a deep breath, "_remember the imaginary friend from school? Kuro? That's me... Not so much an imaginary friend as a latent personality. I come out when Shiro is in danger, like when she is subjected to the Capacity Down. How else did you think I had managed to retrieve them?"_

Jericho just stood there. She was shaking and her eyes seemed unsure. So Kuro took a step forward and wrapped her arms around the smaller girl, pulling her towards herself. "_I am still your friend, as I have always been. I will not hurt you, I promise._" The moment she said this the other girl began to cry, sobbing pitifully. Now that she was safe and calm all the stress from the kidnapping and everything else that she had been bearing so stoically released itself in a stream of tears that lasted several minutes.

When it was finally over she sniffled and looked to the other girl, "what now?"

"_We should get you to somewhere safe, I know of a place if you can just trust me,_" she said as she pulled out a phone. She dialed a number and waited for the other line to pick up, _"It's me, Kuroko. I'm sorry to ask but I was wondering if you could do me a favor... I have a friend who is in a little bit of trouble. Skill-out is after her. I was wondering if you could look after her for a while."_

"An interesting request," said Itora from the other end of the line, "If she's willing to work while she's here then sure. And don't worry, the work is completely legal. Probably filing or something unless she has an interesting ability. Just bring her around."

"_Thank you,_" she said and hung up, "_come on_," she said to Jericho and led her to Itora's residence where she left the other girl, telling her that she would be back again in a couple of days to make sure she was all right.

* * *

With that finished. All she had to do was hunt down the pereskia to change back and drop off the capacity down in a safe location. She should probably heal herself before that as well, seeing as she had an almost dislocated shoulder from the shelf throwing, a cracked sternum, bruised lungs, and a slightly injured tailbone.

"_Your friends are troublesome," _She said to Shiro.

They are worth any trouble. Besides, Jericho is your friend too. You wouldn't have gone that far for Uiharu or Saten. And you'd probably have just watched and laughed if it was my beloved Onee-sama. By the way, you did really great out there. Nice job.

"_You're the one who did all the training, I just implemented it. You should feel pride in yourself, not in me,"_ Kuro said, _"More importantly, how do you feel now that someone knows about me."_

It bugs me a little bit, she seemed so scared when she first saw you. I think I was right in keeping it from her, from everyone.

"_What happens when the others learn," _Kuro said.

They won't

Despite how sure Shiro seemed Kuro knew it was just a matter of time.

* * *

"Dammit..." said the recently defeated Skill-out boss into his cellphone, "I was so close to getting that brat to replicate those devices."

"Don't worry," Said the man on the other line, "We've got enough for our plan without another copy," he grinned as he held up what looked like a simple tape recorder, "Soon the city will fall beneath the heels of Skill-out and those ESPer's will rue the day they messed with us."

* * *

Author's note: Sorry this took so long. Life interferes sometimes. Anyway I promise I'll get the next one out as soon as possible to make up for it, so don't lose faith. Enjoy the chapter.

Also... contrary to what some may think the bit about Osaka wasn't a joke. It is the most dangerous city in all of Japan.

* * *

Dedications: This chapter is dedicated to Shirai Kuroko. You're seriously awesome. It's such a pity you are so underrated.

* * *

Coming Soon: Betrayal, the screaming chariots march forth.


	40. Toaru Kunren no Seikatsu

Toaru Kunren no Seikatsu

A Certain Life of Training

* * *

After Kuro had sorted everything out and handed their body back to Shiro (via a surprise kiss in the middle of a street that caused Misaka to punish her quite harshly) She hid the capacity down and then met Misaka back home shortly before curfew. By this time Misaka had cooled off enough that she did not push Kuroko away when she slid into bed beside her and shortly after that the two were asleep.

The next day they had school again. Misaka decided to avoid the lunchroom and the people in it, instead she ate on the roof with Kuroko. The fact that the school did not have a stairway up to the roof was hardly an issue to the teleporter, one of the many perks of the two girl's friendship.

After school Misaka began wandering around town until she saw two familiar faces.

* * *

"Hey Uiharu, Hey Saten," Misaka said to her two friends as they walked down the street. Over the last couple days she had managed to completely forget about her embarrassment (as well as the incident that had originally caused that embarrassment) mostly due to the fact that Saten hadn't brought anything up about it nor changed her behavior at all as a result. Even with all that had gone on recently it had hardly taken any time whatsoever to return to "normal", a state which they were all quite content with.

"Hey Misaka-san, What's up?" Uiharu asked, "Is Shirai-san with you? It's one of my first patrols alone and I'm kind of nervous about it."

"Sorry but she isn't, she left right after school. She left a note saying that she was going to go train," the older girl told her, leaving out the other contents of the note which would just embarrass Misaka if she had to read them aloud, "if you want I can accompany you though, I don't think that you'll have many problems that I can't solve."

"Would you?" Uiharu asked, excited. Even though they had been friends for over 2 months now she still at times reacted like her old fan girl self around her level-5 Oujo-san friend.

"So cruel Uiharu…" Saten declared, melodramatic clearly feigned hurt in her voice, "Are you saying that I'm not enough protection for you? And here I was putting life and limb on the line for you…"

"tha-that's not what I'm saying at all Saten-san," the flower-headed girl tried to explain, mistaking the hurt as real, "It's just that…"

One skirt flip later the long haired level zero said, "I know I know, it was a joke. It's more about company than security right and the more the merrier on that front."

After recovering from her embarrassment (and reprimanding her friend for causing it) Uiharu admitted, "that's kind of true actually. It's been very quiet for the past few days. The worst crime I've seen is littering."

"I heard that there was some pretty major vandalism somewhere else in the district, a whole parking garage or something," Misaka piped up as the trio continued their walk, "completely pulverized but there was no sound of explosions or anything. It just kind of… fell."

"Yeah, I heard about that too," Uiharu said. Saten had told her about it earlier while they were still in the office and she had looked it up, "They don't even have a culprit yet or any clue of how it was done. The garage was a hideout for Skill-Out so there's motive for just about anyone who has been targeted by them and the ability or mechanism that caused the crash doesn't narrow down the search enough to begin questioning. It's not in our jurisdiction though so we don't need to worry about it."

"Maybe it was 'The Great Scourge of District Seven'" Saten joked.

For a second Misaka remembered what the teleporter had done with the building during the Queen incident and wondered if she had been involved. But she quickly shook off the thought. A parking garage would be far more difficult to destroy with that method and besides, "she was with a friend yesterday while that happened." The electro-master told the other two.

"Besides I don't see how Shirai-san could bring down a building without explosives," Uiharu said, being the only one of the three not to see the trick in action

"Well," Saten started a smile growing on her face as she launched into her story.

* * *

A jet black raven soared amongst the clouds in a blue sky. It flew towards a mountain growing out of the distant horizon. It perched upon a lone tree rout growing from the face of a cliff that fell off into a snow covered plateau. In the middle of the flat stretch of rock was a temple complex with several buildings, each with towering pagoda-style roofs.

In the courtyard, despite the blistering wind, there stood many men and women in thin orange robes, among them a young girl with pinkish brown hair tied neatly with two ribbons. Fluidly they moved, almost as one, through a series of forms and strikes. In front of each was a pile of several bricks balanced on two concrete blocks. Suddenly, with a cry from each of the robed martial artists, they struck the pile of bricks, shattering each and every one as well as the concrete blocks upon which they rested.

* * *

"And that's where Kuroko's gone off to do her training,"Saten finished still sounding as serious as when she had begun, though now she was having trouble containing her laughter at the image and how well it actually fit the other girl. [1]

"Sorry to disappoint you but she did her training in a dojo within the city," Misaka told her, though she had to admit as well that it was not that outlandish a concept and the image worked surprisingly well.

"Besides, the Shaolin temple's in China, Saten-san," Uiharu said,"Even if she teleported she couldn't reach it in time. I'm sure it's more like this…"

* * *

In the middle of a forest thick with fog and thin of light, perched upon a long dead tree a lone raven cawed its carrion tone. The ground was slick with mud and the sun had long since vanished from this god-forsaken place.

Still the forest was anything but quiet or calm. In the middle of a clearing free of trees a battle raged. A dragon roared in a terrible fury, its firey breath whipped towards its prey. However the young girl that was its prey was too quick and she teleported aside before a single tongue of fire could lap at the bare flesh still left uncovered by her ridiculously impractical armor consisting of just a breastplate, codpiece, and cape. Now that she had a second of safety from the dragon as it recharged its breath, she cut down its demonic minions with her massive battle-axe, which, despite being at least a foot taller than herself, she wielded with ease. With them defeated she turned again to the dragon which breathed its flames again at the girl. But this time she did not teleport aside, instead leaping through the flame right at the dragon. A second later and she was behind the dragon, clearly hurt while the dragon looked fine. Then she smiled and the mighty dragon fell with a thud.

As she stood up she heard a ding that signaled that she had leveled up.

* * *

"And that's what she meant by training," Uiharu concluded. The other two looked at each other and shook their heads.

"At least China is a place, even a teleporter can't go to a fantasy world," Saten teased.

"And, while the ridiculously revealing armor suits her, I don't really understand why you chose a battleaxe as a weapon. It doesn't really fit her does it?" Misaka decided, "I see it as being more like this…"

* * *

The rain poured down hard as a single raven circled in the sky, waiting for its next meal to drop dead. Below was a compound encircled with barbed wire fencing. Several tents and temporary shelters were set up within the borders of the fence.

Carried on the winds were the cries of a man wearing a military uniform as he yelled at several people wearing the same, including one particularly young one with a stern face that belied her years. They ran through the pouring rain and slick mud along a track, an obstacle course. The sound of bombs and bullets filled the already screaming night. Several of the other uniformed men were downed by the rubber training bullets that were shot from the sideline but Kuroko pressed on, narrowly avoiding one of the bullets which was heading right for her head with a timely dodge.

She jumped and clambered around the obstacles as even more people fell all around her until finally, as the finish line came into sight, she was the last person standing. But as she ran for the finish line she accidently stepped on the final obstacle, one of the mimes in a minefield. It exploded in a flash of fire and sound looking like it had completely obliterated the girl. But as the smoke cleared she was standing on the finish line, having teleported at the last instant. She held her hands high in victory.

* * *

"And that's the way it is,"Misaka finished.

"Did you say she stepped on a mime?" Uiharu asked, wondering if she had misheard.

"Mime, mine, whatever, it was close enough."

Saten laughed, "as suitable as that image is," she said when she calmed down, "I don't think she is quite old enough to join the army. I'm sure her training is far more normal than any of this."

* * *

Kuroko dropped low to the ground and listened to the beeps that signaled the countdown to go. When she finally heard the final beep she took off down the track as she headed for the first obstacle, the towering rock wall.

She knew the entire surface like the back of her hand and she knew exactly the best and most efficient path up. She jumped onto the rock wall landing with one foot on one of the larger stones near the bottom and from that perch she jumped again, straight up, and grabbed onto one of the rocks higher on the wall. From there she quickly climbed the surface at a speed that few would believe a human capable of. But she had had plenty of practice, she had been climbing for years now, ever since she was kid and she knew just where to look and what to grab to climb as fast and safely(sometimes) as possible.

Once she had reached the top of the wall the next stage began, The multi-level parkour course that she had run numerous times in the past. When she had first started training she had dismissed this part as unnecessary and a waste of time for a teleporter who would one day be able to teleport any and everywhere without this silly "free-running" thing. But she had run it despite these feelings and in the incident with Jericho it had paid off. So she leaped and rolled and did all manner of ridiculous acrobatics the course required as she made her way through the course without a single stop or hesitation in her movement.

When she had finally reached the bottom her knees were sore and her legs were beginning to hurt quite a bit but she pressed on. The next part could not afford hesitation. As she ran the track narrowed into a corridor with holes riddling the walls. From these holes at random intervals shot cattle prods that would deliver a nasty shock to whoever touched them with only a pneumatic hiss and half a second of warning. Still that half-second was enough for Kuroko to weave her way around them.

Suddenly the corridor went into a room, a firing range with 5 targets set up 10 yards away. Each target had a black circle inscribed in the middle of the torso, the head, and the neck. For this step a gun was usually required but Kuroko hated guns. So rather than shooting them she used the ancient shaolin art of needle throwing to accomplish the task. Since there were several circles in a vertical line all she needed to do was aim for the head and factor her horizontal movement into her throw. Though her aim wasn't the best, she hit somewhere within the three circles in all of the dummies without stopping her determined run. When the last one had been hit, the door out of the room opened and she ran through.

Next was the rope climb, followed by the high altitude balance beam, followed by numerous other obstacles, ending with a final high speed run. When she passed the finish line the large sign that had been timing her stopped. As Kuroko and caught her breath she looked at the time and was somewhat disappointed to see that it was 17 seconds less than her previous best time. Though she comforted herself that she was a bit out of practice as it had been more than a month since she had last trained here.

Not only that but this time she was weighed down by 70 pounds of weight whereas that time it had only been 55 pounds. The weight came from a series of five-pound sand filled weights strapped to her arms legs and chest to weigh her down without hindering her running ability. So all in all it had been a good run.

* * *

It would probably disturb the young girl's trio of friends to know that their guesses hadn't been very ridiculous at all and how close to the truth the three, but especially Misaka, had been.

Though the electro-master was wrong in her guess of where exactly it would be Kuroko was training, as well as the "mimefield" at the end of the course, she was right that the teleporter was, at this moment, training in a paramilitary training compound. It was tucked away in District 2 where the training of both Judgment and Anti-Skill agents took place but it was not for either of those groups. Kuroko did not know it but it was actually far harsher than Anti-Skills training compounds and was actually intended for Academy City's secret special forces.

She did not know this because, despite having found this place 4 years ago and using it ever since, she had never seen anyone else use it. While it was remarkably well maintained by robots there was not a single piece of evidence which would suggest that it was being used or had been used by people for months or even years. Academy City's special forces were not trained in a constant stream and only very rarely needed to be replaced. Since this was the case their training grounds spent months, sometimes years, completely unused. Last time it had happened they had carelessly left the door open for Kuroko to wander in and begin using it for her own.

It was the best possible training site she could hope for, with several different sections each designed to train in certain areas, such as endurance, speed, stealth, or various more specific skills like lock picking (which she was okay in) and hacking (which she was terrible at, having never really tried it). It also had the toughest obstacle course she had ever seen (After 4 years of running it almost daily, the obstacle course she had had to run for her Judgment exam had been almost like walking a straight line in terms of difficulty and had led to her setting the record by a margin of almost an entire minute) in its central portion with every type of obstacle she could think of. It even auto-timed her as she ran. After 3 years she had managed to beat the previous record on this one as well, though not by so large a margin, and had only improved since then.

Another area had weapons training with a combat training bot and every weapon imaginable. While Kuroko wasn't usually a weapon user, she had still spent a lot of time training here for the workout it provided . Because of this, and because of her natural dislike of weapons in general, she had chosen the most cumbersome, unwieldy weapon of them all to train with to discourage her from using her training in a real-life situation in the future. After all, when would she have the opportunity to use something like that?

The weapon in question was the battle-axe, and over her 4 years of training she had managed to become proficient enough with it that she could wield it as easily as any other weapon, almost completely disregarding the massive weight and size of the thing. She was hardly a master but she was the closest thing to a master someone her age could realistically be.

It was the same way with her martial arts. The Shaolin style martial arts she had been taught by her teacher (whose mother and father were actual Shaolin monks that had left the monastery at an older age to ensure that their daughter had a better, less reclusive life) could never be truly mastered without a lifetime of training. However she had spent 6 years training almost every day for anywhere between 2 hours to 17 hours, so it would be wrong to call her anything else either. She was as proficient as someone her age could possibly be.

Proficiency was a matter of time and, before being admitted to Judgment and Tokiwadai, Kuroko had spent almost every waking moment of her life training or learning for the past four years. She even had figured out special techniques for maximizing the efficiency of her workouts or mental training, the chief of which were the drugs that her doctor had prescribed to her. The recovery drugs especially. Normally trying to work out every day would be counterproductive as, without giving your muscles time to heal, they would end up getting more and more broken rather than stronger. Normally this meant resting for two days for every one day of extensive exercise. But the recovery drugs allowed her to shorten this resting period to overnight, allowing her to do constant training and reap all the benefits of it.

Of course the constant training had had its cost that not even pills could fix. She sat down next to her bag and grabbed a cup from it. This cup contained a mixture with the flavor and consistency of swamp muck and the aroma to match. It was the raw form of a specialized concoction commercially available but primarily used for professional athletes or soldiers (though they usually chose to flavor it to get rid of the taste and smell) and was what Kuroko had lived on for a good portion of her life. It had all the vitamins, minerals, and proteins needed for a human and could be used as a substitute for any other sustenance. But its true value lied in its ability to be easily digested. Kuroko's body had, for years, been under almost constant stress and, in addition to her unique risk of stress-induced Hell, this severely hampered her immune and digestive systems to the point where eating anything other than this specially made goop would probably make her nauseous. Even when she had stopped training so hard after she had joined Judgment it still took two weeks before she could eat something solid without vomiting shortly after.

After drinking the concoction, suppressing her gag reflex while doing so, she stood up and grabbed the backpack that was sitting close by. She hefted it onto her back and began her jog.

* * *

"You had to do a lot of training when you were joining Judgment as well, didn't you Uiharu?" Saten asked.

"yeah, it was really tough. I was younger than most of the people there but I still had to do the same amount of work. I did horribly… I could hardly do a pushup and jogging was difficult. I was the slowest in the class."

"Well, as you said you were the youngest person there, right? It's understandable that you'd be behind," Saten comforted.

"Not really. I was only the second youngest. Shirai-san was the youngest," Uiharu corrected.

"Oh yeah, you guys went to the academy together didn't you?" Misaka remembered from a story that Kuroko had told her a while ago, "How did she do."

Uiharu sighed, "Her record for the obstacle course at the end of training still hasn't been beaten. Nobody's even come close. She beat the previous record by, like, a minute. She was the most advanced person in class. If I hadn't gotten such a high grade on the other portions of the work I might not have made it in given my physical." The teleporter had always been better than her in almost all aspects. So much so that it had always made the flower-headed girl feel a bit under confident. But she comforted herself with the knowledge that Kuroko still relied on her support so she was hardly worthless. It was why she had gotten so angry that one time when Kuroko had forgotten their promise, when Kuroko had chosen not to listen to her despite the fact that giving advice was all she could do for the other girl. and in these past several days the teleporter had stopped relying on her once again. She had grown more withdrawn and distant, almost like she was suspicious of Uiharu or hiding something from her. It was starting to make her feel like she was worthless again, not only that but it made her feel like she was losing one of her friends.

"But you made it through in the end didn't you?" the long haired girl reminded her, "It's more than we can say. Even the great Railgun herself found Judgment work daunting and you do it every day."

"I didn't find it daunting," the girl in question corrected, embarrassed, "I found it boring and I wasn't used to it."

"But you can understand how annoying it is to be bad at something that others find so easy don't you? It's the same thing the people who used the level upper felt," Saten said, speaking from experience. She felt this way all the time and had come to accept it, but she still could understand the feeling of her friend, "the feeling that all the practice and hard work in the world still won't help you catch up to those with natural talent."

"We-" Misaka opened her mouth to respond but her words were cut short the next second as she was tackled by the ground.

"Onee-sama," a familiar voice said, "what a wonderful coincidence. I've been missing you." Kuroko said as she rubbed her cheek along the older girl's face. This time it actually was a coincidence as well. Though she had put a tracker on every one of her three friends, she hadn't used them. She had simply seen them as they were walking down the street. Figuring some Onee-sama loving ought to get her nice and motivated, she had stopped to get just that.

"Off," the electro-master ordered. The teleporter let her go and she pushed herself up, "honestly, was that completely necessary?" she asked as she extended a hand to the other girl. The other girl took it and Misaka tried to pull her up only to find that she was too heavy. She pulled again but failed, "geez Kuroko, how much do you weigh."

Suddenly Kuroko remembered the weights that she had on. That must have been why Misaka fell to the ground in the first place, rather than just stumble a bit like usual. Next time Misaka tugged she pushed herself up and dusted herself off, "Onee-sama," she sighed disapprovingly, "that is not a proper question to ask a lady."

"Hey there Kuroko," Saten stepped in to stop an argument, "How are you? We heard you were training, what are you doing here?"

Kuroko walked over to the backpack she had dropped in order to hug her Onee-sama, "I was going out for a jog," she explained as she hoisted it onto her back, "what about you?"

"I'm on patrol and I asked the other two to join me," Uiharu said, "There's no activity really so we were talking about training and talent."

"I heard the last thing," Kuroko told her, "did you know that only 2% of ESPers gain their powers directly out of the power curriculum program? And only a tiny fraction of those have powers higher than Level one. And even that tiny fraction has to go through the power curriculum program like everyone else. The idea of talent is ridiculous. So is the idea that anyone finds anything easy. _'Nothing ever becomes easy, you simply get used to the hardship'_," She quoted Kuro.

"But isn't that easy for you or I to say Kuroko," Misaka said, a bit annoyed at Kuroko's insensitivity, "sure I trained like everyone else to improve my power but some people just have a harder time doing so. It's not necessarily their fault."

"Powers aren't the only thing I'm talking about. Uiharu, how many hours have you spent practicing your computer skills? Thousands probably, and that time shows. You are the best computer person-thing I have ever seen. You were the top of the class in the academy while I just did a bit above average. Saten, you…" there was silence for a few seconds as Kuroko scrambled for an example, "are the same…" she mumbled, not finding one.

A giant spear with the words "no skills" pierced her heart at Kuroko's accidently harsh words. Seeing that her friend had been accidently insulted Misaka rose to her defense, 'yeah Saten you have your…" then she realized she couldn't think of anything either and meekly finished, "stuff…". A second spear pierced right next to the other one. Now it was Uiharu's turn to try and mend the situation, "You're really good at…" but in the high pressure situation she drew a blank too, so she said the first thing that came to mind, "um… flipping skirts?" Five more spears one after the other stabbed Saten.

The next second the long haired girl was kneeling beside Uiharu hugging her waist, "it's just you and me against the world 'lime green panties'. You know I have skills don't you?" she narrated dramatically to Uiharu's underwear. Misaka and Kuroko sweatdropped while Uiharu blushed.

"I didn't mean to imply that you had no skills, you just don't showcase many of them. I'm sure you're good at plenty of stuff, but you goof off a lot too. If you want to be good at something you need to train," the teleporter said in both lecture and comfort, "before joining Judgment I usually trained about 80 hours a week to get to where I am now."

Suddenly everything became quiet as the other girls turned and looked at Kuroko, "did you say 80 hours a week?" Misaka asked.

"During a school week, during vacation I could sometimes get in almost 120 hours. How else did you think I could be so proficient at martial arts. I'm sure you trained as much Onee-sama. Though knowing you and how amazing you are you probably didn't need to. If talent exists I have none of it, I need training or I'm completely useless."

Misaka trained 10-25 hours on a good week, less probably on a week without school. That number that Kuroko said… "how in the world do you train 120 hours in seven days?" She didn't necessarily think that Kuroko was lying but if it was true, "that would mean you spent 17 hours a day. Is that healthy?"

"6 hours of sleep, an hour of necessary functions, and 17 hours of training. Seeing as how I'm still alive I think it was healthy enough," the teleporter explained, suddenly feeling like she was in the spotlight. All she had meant to do was comfort her friend. She should probably change the subject before her Onee-sama started asking more questions. It wouldn't be good if Misaka had discovered everything about her past, especially about those four years and the cause of them, "but my point is that the work you get out is directly proportional to the work you put in. Maybe it's not the same for ESPer abilities but for everything else I know it to be true."

"I guess," Saten said, "but I don't think any skill is worth that kind of training… except maybe the guitar…"

"you play the guitar?" Uiharu asked, never having heard about this before.

"A little bit when I was younger. I've always really wanted to play it but I've never really found the time or motivation. I hear it's really hard to pick up an instrument."

"Actually, while it's quite hard to learn the basics and get a feel for the instrument, it's quite natural once you do," Misaka said.

"You play violin don't you Misaka-san," Uiharu sighed, "such a ladylike instrument, I hope I could learn to play it one day."

"If you'd like I could give you lessons sometime. I don't think I can teach the guitar but I could teach the violin pretty well," the older girl offered.

"What about you Kuroko? Could you teach me guitar? Do you happen to have any rock in roll in your blood?" Saten joked.

"I could teach you a bit of piano but I'm trying to put my punk rock days behind me so no guitar," Kuroko said, sarcasm dripping from the last part of the sentence.

"Pity, I'm sure your hair would look great in a Mohawk," Saten mused and laughed, the others joining in.

"Well I should probably get on with my jog," Kuroko said. She gave Misaka a long hug, "I'll see you at home my darling Onee-sama. Keep up the good work Uiharu." She added just before setting off. However, before she could get far, Misaka spoke up.

"By the way, do you know anything about the incident with the parking garage that happened yesterday?"

"Nope," She called back with a smile and no hesitation, "Should I?"

"No, I was just wondering. See you later."

With that Kuroko continued her jog. Lying was another thing that improved with practice and she had practiced far too much in her life.

* * *

[1]: This story, as well as the others, were, once again, not word for word. Also the recurring raven within these stories isn't part of what the girls are saying. The raven is a symbol that tells you to doubt what I'm saying, a symbol that it might not be reality.

* * *

Author's Note: Final chapters of the Jericho arc are coming up next.

One of my readers has asked to see Kuroko's training in action and I personally wanted to talk about it myself. I am a firm believer in training. I think talent exists but isn't nearly as helpful as people think. Kuroko's only good at so many things because she has trained so hard, though even she only has a limited skillset. Training From Hell, as it is called on TVTropes, is not an excuse to have a character be good at everything nor should it allow a character to overcome someone who has trained considerably more, if less harshly, than they have. According to the 10000 hour rule(though with a slight alteration because I believe 5000 hours is sufficient for most things) Kuroko would have time to either master 4 things or master 3 things and become proficient it several others. Kuroko is a master at the spatial geometry and calculus used for her teleportation (she is especially skilled at precision teleportation), martial arts, and the battleaxe. She is not, currently, a master at anything else, though she is proficient at lockpicking, stealth, photography, the piano (though her skill has grown rusty), cooking, and etiquette. She has also extensively studied medicine, weaponry, maths, and physics. She is weak in the fields of History and the nuances of technology (she can use a computer well but she is terrible at things like hacking or driving). I am listing these now so you can call me out if she does anything not on the list at an unrealistic level of proficiency. I don't want her devolving into a do-everything-perfectly character that is boring to read about.

* * *

Coming Soon: Royal flush, the fall of The Queen.


	41. Toaru Shinzō no Dokidoki

Toaru Shinzō no Dokidoki

A Pounding of the Heart

* * *

It was late at night in the Tokiwadai dorms, shortly before curfew but shortly after Misaka had returned, that the door opened and a clearly exhausted Kuroko walked in. "I'm home," she said with a smile.

"Welcome back," Misaka answered as she lay on the bed reading a book.

Kuroko went to the closet and searched around for her medicine box. She teleported it into the bathroom then pulled out a towel from the pile of them stacked neatly in the closet and went into the bathroom herself. She took her medication then teleported the box back to its place in the closet and began undressing. She had already changed out of her exercise clothes and was back in her uniform, which she proceeded to take off a piece at a time, depositing them in the laundry hamper. Then she undid the ribbons in her hair and placed them gently in the case she stored them in every night before bed. Side by side one could see the slight difference between the two ribbons. One of them was clearly newer; this was one of the pair she had recently received as a present from her Onee-sama. The other was quite old, but it was so well taken care of that the age didn't really show. It was one of her original ribbons that she had been wearing for years now.

Though she had loved her Onee-sama's present and wanted to wear both of the ribbons all the time she couldn't. The other pair was just as significant to her. They too had been a gift, a gift from the person who had saved her four years ago. Before then she had never wore ribbons but he had given her two pairs, her red ones that she wore during summer and spring and white ones she wore during winter and autumn, as a consolation and told her that they would look good on her. She had worn them ever since. Since both the pair she received from her Onee-sama and the pair she received from that man were equally important she had decided to wear one from each pair at once.

With that done she took a shower. After that she draped herself in a small towel and walked out of the bathroom, placing the case with her ribbons on her desk she took a seat in the chair and began brushing her hair.

* * *

Misaka found her gaze wandering to the other girl, observing her shoulders and upper back where the towel did not cover. She watched with a sense of what could be called... fascination.

The first few times Kuroko had "revealed herself" to Misaka had been deliberate actions by the other girl to "excite" her so she had seen it as nothing but an annoyance at first, coupled with a feeling of embarrassment for the other girl's lack of shame. Later, just after the Queen incident and their formation of their relationship, when Kuroko had done that stupid apron thing she had been far less annoyed and more embarrassed than before. Her anger and annoyance at the younger girl's advances had always been, at least partially, the confused feelings that such actions caused, when she admitted that those feelings might be love those emotions of rage calmed, replaced by even more embarrassment that such displays did, and always had in a sense, excited her.

But ever since Kuroko's sickness when she had first seen the state her body was in at the time, the excitement, which had never been that great in the first place, was eclipsed by concern and a morbid curiosity. It was strangely interesting to watch her move with just the towel on, watching the muscles of her shoulders move. She saw the hesitation and caution in her movements that suggested severe soreness and fatigue.

Misaka figured that she must be in pain; that much she could tell by her heartbeat. Even from this distance the rhythmic firing of nerves was clear to the electro-master. Normally when she brushed her hair her heartbeat fell into a lower, calmer rhythm, like she was sleeping or meditating. But now it was slightly faster than normal, maybe 2 or 3 beats per minute faster. This suggested that her body was still under strain despite the fact that she was now resting. Misaka unconsciously drummed her fingers in time with the beat. **B-Ba Bum** she tapped the odd triple beat that was unique to her girlfriend. She had often wondered what caused the delay between the right atrium and the left atrium that produced the asymmetrical rhythm, but she doubted the other girl would even know what she was talking about, let alone the cause of it. Misaka liked to think that the delay was caused by her heart actually having two sides to it much like her personality, the headstrong side of Kuroko rushing forth while her cautious side waited until it was sure it was ok.

Kuroko had always been a girl of two sides. Her name itself showed the odd duality that permeated so many parts of her personality. The duality actually suited their relationship well. Unlike most people, Misaka could handle the radical shifts to personality that the teleporter went through so often, and even returned those changes with some of her own. The perfect, mature, and lecherous face that Kuroko wore most of the time suited Misaka's tsuntsun side well while the younger girl's fragile, vulnerable, and more affectionate face that the electro-master, almost exclusively, was privy to, suited her deredere side perfectly.

In this sense the two were perfect for each other. Everyone has many sides to them but the fact that their various sides fit together so well that they almost automatically changed when the other changed suggested a unique and valuable bond between the two. Kuroko knew about this bond, she had known about it since just after their first meeting and it was part of the reason she had decided that she loved Misaka. The older girl herself was not consciously aware of the bond, though she felt its effects just as strongly, or perhaps even more so.

**B-Ba Bum, B-Ba Bum, B-Ba Bum**. Misaka watched as Kuroko's shoulder muscles began cramping tightly. It must have been be painful, but, as always, Kuroko showed no sign of pain. A couple weeks ago she had wondered if Kuroko was actually capable of pain, having seen so little evidence of it that she had truly begun to doubt she did.

Now she felt differently. She still remembered the whimpers of the younger girl when she had been sick. She had been so vulnerable then, in pain and totally paralyzed... so afraid that she had been almost completely reduced to tears the second the older girl let go of her, afraid of being left alone for even a second. Normally Kuroko hid her fear even better than she hid her pain, such that nobody would think she was afraid of anyone.

Misaka knew better though, she saw Kuroko during her nightmares; she had felt how tightly the younger girl had clung to her that day. Much like the pain it was hard to see and Misaka could only guess how afraid she was every day without a single sign to betray this fear, but she knew that at least she was aware of some of it, more than most people for sure. Of all people Misaka thought that she knew Kuroko the best, except perhaps Kuroko's own parents.

The older girl stood up and walked over to her roommate, then she placed her hands on the other girl's shoulders. Without a word she began to massage them gently.

Misaka did not want her girlfriend to be afraid or hurting. She wanted the amount of pain that Kuroko showed to be the same as the amount she felt, she wanted her to be as free from fear as she appeared.

**B-Ba Bum B-Ba Bum B-Ba Bum, **the younger girl's heartbeat sped up the second Misaka touched her. "O-Onee-sama?" She said as she froze, confusion and surprise in her voice. Her head tilted slightly to be able to see the older girl.

"You look like you were training quite hard today, you look like you could use this," the electro-master said, getting quite embarrassed, "don't get me wrong or anything, this is a one-time thing and I'm not enjoying it…" she lied. In truth the feeling of the relaxing muscles beneath her fingers was actually quite pleasant; feeling the other girl react to her touches in such a way always gave her a feeling of power over the teleporter that was so difficult to obtain any other way.

Kuroko smiled at this and leaned in to kiss Misaka's hand gently, not wanting to repel her Onee-sama by doing anything more rash than that. After that she put down her brush, forgetting her soreness and pain completely as she leaned into the other girl's gentle caresses.

The teleporter's skin was still slightly wet with surprisingly cold water from the shower she had taken, but she was still quite warm despite the cold water. The warmth that radiated from her was further increased by the slight blush that adorned the teleporter's entire face and for a second Misaka understood how the other girl found her embarrassment cute.

Kuroko's skin was very supple and smooth despite how slim and battle worn she was. Normally it was hard to tell since her hands, lower legs and forearms were actually very callused and hard, probably from her martial arts. But the rest of her was as soft and huggable as a stuffed animal. She took very good care of her body to get it like this despite the strain. A shower of hers usually took 25 minutes as she applied 10 different types of lotion and other things to improve her appearance for Misaka.

Misaka knew that it was for her as well. When she had first met Kuroko her appearance had been far more unkempt, only when she had moved in had the change taken place, and it had been quite a noticeable one as well. They had both changed considerably since then, certainly due, in a large part, to each other's influence.

**B-Ba Bum B-Ba Bum B-Ba Bum, **Kuroko's heartbeat continued its quick pace but underneath Misaka's hands she was almost completely relaxed, her eyes were closed and her lips were pulled up in a small smile. Feeling that she was done but not quite wanting to separate from the other girl quite yet she picked up the brush that Kuroko had put down and sat back on the bed behind her, then she pulled the teleporter onto her lap and began brushing her hair for her. **B-Ba Bum-B-Ba Bum-B-Ba Bum,** Kuroko's heartbeat quickened another step as she let out a little gasp of surprise, but she didn't say a word, not wanting to shatter the sweet illusion.

Their position was enough to cause Kuroko's blush to deepen but it was still within Misaka's comfort zone. Brushing each other's hair was something that girls did for each other so it was friendshippy enough that Misaka was not too embarrassed to do it, though the close contact with such a scantily clad Kuroko did cause crimson to colour her own face. **Ba Bum-Ba Bum- Ba Bum**. She felt her own heartbeat speed up; the pounding in her own chest fell into time with the thumping of the teleporter's heart though of course the beats were still mismatched. To the electro-master that simple thing was almost as intimate as the contact, though in a far less embarrassing way. The hand that was holding onto Kuroko, wound about her waist, tapped out the rhythm.

Kuroko, meanwhile, was in both heaven and hell. She honestly couldn't believe that this was happening, she was a bit scared that it wasn't but she tried to be optimistic. Here she was, sitting on her Onee-sama's lap, so close she could feel the heat radiating from her chest… and she couldn't do a thing for fear of it all coming crashing down around her.

Misaka could feel Kuroko become more and more tensed. She was clearly trying to restrain herself, to hold back, and the electro-master was grateful for this, but as the younger girl grew even more restless she wondered just how long it would be until she finally broke. However Misaka tempted fate and simply continued brushing.

The teleporter held it in for another three minutes before it became too much. She rounded on the other girl and embraced her tightly. "Onee-samaaaa…" she whined in a voice Misaka found oddly adorable, it sounded a bit like a child whining about only being able to have one cookie from the full jar, "Stop teasing me… I'm trying so hard to control myself but you're making it so haaaard."

Misaka couldn't help but laugh at the desperation in Kuroko's voice. She never thought that Kuroko would actually be begging her to stop something like this. "I'm sorry. Thanks for keeping control though."

Kuroko just kept her face buried in Misaka's chest with her arms wrapped tightly around the electro-master's waist, trying hard not to do anything more than she was doing now. The older girl herself still had a hand around the teleporter's own waist, resting on the scars on her lower back.

Eventually the squirming girl in Misaka's grasp calmed herself down and Misaka spoke, her voice a bit solemn, "new bruises I see."

"Training," Kuroko responded simply.

"Yeah… you said as much earlier…" There was a pause before the older girl continued, "about what you said before… why? Why do you train so hard?"

"I told you… I'm talentless… I'm completely useless at everything unless I train hard to master it."

Misaka still had a tough time believing that. She had never really seen anything that the teleporter was not good at (other than respecting personal space and perhaps a few other social matters). How anyone could master such a wide array of skills at such a young age was amazing and slightly unbelievable and even more unbelievable that none of it was natural talent. The electro-master had always trained hard as well, always worked as hard as she could in order to get to the point where she was right now, but during the level upper she had been forced to admit that some people can't do the things she could do no matter how hard they worked, she had had to admit that most of her ability was due to talent, not hard work.

Whether or not she could accept Kuroko's words there was still another question, "why do you need to master so many things? Why do you try so hard to be good at everything?"

**B-Ba Bum, B-Ba Bum, B-Ba Bum,** There was a pause and Misaka was just about to speak up when Kuroko responded, "I don't really know actually. It could be several things… it could be a desire to be the best, it could be a want to be able to do everything by myself without relying on others," her grip on Misaka's waist tightened as her voice took on a sadder tone, "it could be because I feel like I owe it to others to be good enough… or maybe it's because I just don't like who I am and want to become better… so I don't have to be me," then her voice lightened up again as she kissed the older girl's cheek, "or maybe it's because I have someone like you to bring out my best."

For what must have been the thousandth time Misaka wondered what she had done to enamor Kuroko so. She wondered why the younger girl was so dedicated to her. She wondered why Kuroko thought she deserved such affection, and she wondered what more she could do to actually be worthy of it.

She hugged the teleporter and said; "good night Kuroko," then she kissed her forehead, "pleasant dreams."

"Pleasant reality," the other girl corrected with a great big smile.

**B-Ba Bum, B-Ba Bum, B-Ba Bum.** **Ba Bum, Ba Bum, Ba Bum.** The pair fell asleep to the gentle rhythm of each other's heartbeats.

* * *

Author's note: Sorry this took me so long, and sorry it is so short. holidays and all, plus lots of other work to do. Not only that but making a decently long romance-y chapter is damn difficult.

I decided to do one more romance-y chapter before I ended the Jericho arc in case I don't get a chance to do another before the story itself ends.

* * *

Coming Soon: The secrets of the Eye of the Gods revealed.


	42. Toaru Sonzai-kan no Tsuyo-sa

Toaru Sonzai-kan no Tsuyo-sa

A Certain Strength of Presence

* * *

Misaka's eyes flittered open and she gazed up at the familiar ceiling. There was a familiar pressure of a small girl on top of her along with the familiar feel of a hard jagged line on otherwise feather-like flesh as her hand rested on the girl's back. The familiar, but nevertheless rare, scent of lilies filled her nostrils; it was the small girl's natural scent, without any of her usual perfumes or scented body washes to cover it. Tucked beneath her chin was the familiar sight of pinkish brown hair carefully brushed straight.

The next second she registered more familiar things. The familiar blaring of her alarm clock and the familiar taste and feel of Kuroko's lips on her own as the smaller girl's familiar bright and shining eyes opened and gazed into her own.

"Morning my love," Kuroko said like usual.

Misaka reached up to pat Kuroko's head, a simple show of affection even she was capable of doing daily, and said, "good morning, can you please put some clothes on." This sentence, too, was a surprisingly normal part of their daily routine, though usually said with more annoyance and without the word "please".

Kuroko obliged, standing up and walking over to the closet to get dressed, showing Misaka a little more than she was comfortable with. Kuroko meanwhile was disappointed that it had, once again been Misaka who had gotten her naked rather than the other way around.

* * *

Everything was just the same as it always was, a trend which continued throughout the morning until the lunch bell rang. As Misaka stood up and walked over to the door she noticed Kuroko's absence from her usual spot. This was evidenced by the fact that her classmates were not keeping a minimum of 10 feet away from that particular exit as they usually did to avoid the malevolent aura that the younger girl seemed able to cast. This was not too unusual however and she simply began her walk down to the cafeteria alone.

As Misaka walked down to the lunchroom, she received a note from a girl. The girl seemed quite nervous, handing her the note then scurrying off quickly. This wasn't new to Misaka, it had happened before, and when it had it had usually been a love letter given by a kohai (despite Tokiwadai being an all-girls school, but considering the relationship she was in at the moment…).

But this time it didn't look like a love letter, the stationary was far too plain for that and the writing wasn't nearly flowery enough. As she walked she unfolded the note and read it. The writing was simple and to the point and there wasn't a signature or any markings to denote who had written it.

"I would like to help you with your battle against STORM, meet me at the Amber Teahouse after school."

Once Misaka was done reading it she put it in her pocket and thought about the note. It could be a trap but the place that the note had suggested was quite public and within the highly secure Garden of Education, though quite far away from the school. So the chances of it being a trap were quite slim. She mulled it over for a while longer before deciding to risk it. It was more likely a genuine offer of aid by someone with something against STORM than it was another attempt against her.

She was joined shortly thereafter by Kuroko and they went up to the roof for lunch again.

"What took you?" Misaka asked as she sat down on the bench that, despite there being no roof access, had somehow made its way up here.

"Just doing something. Not really important." Kuroko replied as she handed Misaka her bento.

"Right, thanks," the older girl said as she opened up the box and saw the usual delicious lunch. The biggest benefit to Kuroko moving in was the bentos that she had made for her daily. Though it did raise one question, "where do you find the time to make these each morning?" she asked as she picked up a Gekota-shaped onigiri with a smile.

"Careful time management," Kuroko said. She had always tried to eliminate useless things from her daily schedule and use her time the best she could in order to free up more time for training. It transitioned nicely over to the busy schedule that she still kept herself to however.

"And why haven't you been making yourself one recently?" Misaka asked, looking to the girl who was leaning against her with empty hands.

"Because," the teleporter replied, "Onee-sama is the only thing I need, your presence is like a feast for my soul."

"Your body's what I'm worried about," the older girl said, honestly concerned, "You're not on a diet or something that's causing you not to eat right? You don't need to be." She assured Kuroko, perhaps unnecessarily considering just how thin the younger girl was.

"I suppose you could call it a diet, but it's not a weight loss thing. It's a fitness diet to help get the most out of my training, high protein, lots of vitamins, things like that. Mostly liquids and shakes."

There was silence for a while as she ate and Kuroko rested against her, then the younger girl spoke up, "I'll be doing more training after school so I'm going to head off immediately."

"Sure thing," Misaka said, glad that she was freed from having to come up with an excuse for her own after-school activity, "are you going to be training all weekend too?"

"Saturday I think, but If you really miss my company that much we can hang out on Sunday if you want."

"That's not what I meant," the older girl defended, "we just haven't spent much time together, which is kind of surprising given that you're you. I thought that you'd want to spend every minute of your newly earned free time with me."

"I do Onee-sama, I really do. But I know that when I spend too much time around you I'll lose control and get too clingy. I'd prefer spending less time but better time to more time with you angry at me half that time. So I use the rest of my extra time improving myself so when I get back in Judgment I'll be ready."

"That's… mature of you," Misaka admitted.

"I've been waiting months for you to fall in love with me and I'd hate myself if I messed it up now." She said, standing up as the bell rang. She took the empty bento from the electro-masters hands and kissed her cheek. Then she teleported the two of them back and they parted ways.

* * *

School proceeded normally from there and after school she went to the Amber Teahouse like the note said. She sat down at a table and ordered something, waiting for the person she was supposed to meet. It wasn't too long until she was joined by a somewhat familiar face, it was one of the girls who had accompanied Yashinko the last couple times Misaka had had the displeasure of meeting her.

"Hello Misaka," the girl said very formally. She was clearly nervous; her eyes darted back and forth as if afraid of people jumping out of the shadows. Her whole bearing was quite different than what it had been before. "My name is Rya," she continued, "I'd like to help you, or rather I'd like you to help me, actually I'd like if we helped each other. I know all about this whole STORM ordeal and I'd like you to know that I'm on your side here. I can tell you where to find Yashinko tonight and how you can end this once and for all." She handed Misaka what looked to be the floor plan to a building, "Go to the Honogun company headquarters and follow that map. Will you please help me."

It was an excellent stroke of good fortune for the electro-master, one that she was not planning to overlook. While it was again possible for this to be a trap this Rya girl didn't seem to be deceiving her. The other girl's heartbeat was slightly panicked in accordance with her general aura but it was steady, suggesting that she wasn't lying. So Misaka replied, "of course. Thank you for this."

"I just want to help you. She'll be there at 8 P.M. It's after closing time so there won't be anybody else other than security. Now I've got to go before she catches me." Rya said as she hurriedly stood up and left. Misaka didn't catch the proud grin on her face as she walked out the door.

* * *

The plan left her a few more hours of free time so she began to prepare. She went back to the dorm and began rooting through her desk until she found what she was looking for. It was a kit that Kuroko had prepared after the queen incident. The teleporter had given it to her saying, "if you ever go on another escapade, with or without me, at least bring this. It isn't for any long term romps but it has things that you might need in an emergency."

She looked through the kit to see what it contained then took out some of its contents, putting them in her pocket for greater ease of access then she began to put it away only to stop as she saw something. She took out the rest of the stuff and looked at the bottom of the box where a little card sat. Misaka half-smiled and half-frowned as she read it then placed the stuff back in the kit and put it away.

Once she was done with that she did a little research into the Honogun Corporation both to find out the address of the headquarters (which Rya had failed to give her) and to try and figure out what she could expect. When it was time she left the dorm and began her trip to her destination.

Her trip was short and uneventful and she now stood, in the dwindling light twilight, outside the headquarters of the Honogun Corporation.

* * *

She went over to one of the side doors and used her power to unlock its simple electrical security system then she entered. The map she had gotten from Rya said to go down a couple of floors to get to her destination so she walked over to the elevator. She overrode its controls and sent it down to the target floor. As it descended she focused on the surrounding electrical grid, trying to sort out what was and wasn't part of the security system. There were so many electronics that it was hard to sort out. So she decided to simply shut down everything but the lights within a small radius from herself to be safe. It seemed to work as the door opened and the camera at the end of the hall monitoring said elevator was shut down. However she must have missed something because it was hardly half a minute after that that an alarm sounded.

Misaka frowned at her bad luck but in the back of her mind she was grateful to finally have a challenge. She picked up the pace, running through the halls. Doors blocked off the path that had been suggested by Rya but that plan was already down the tube so she simply followed the open doors until she came to a dead end. There was a room leading from the dead end but the door to the room was closed.

Remembering the basic layout of the building from the map she knew that this room would give her a passage through to her destination. So she got out her container of iron sand and formed it into a small circular saw, using it to saw through the hinges of the door. It took a while but finally the door fell down into two halves and Misaka entered the room.

* * *

The room was fairly large and rectangular. The floor was littered with powders gels and solid blocks of stuff. Against the walls were many containers. The containers were all labeled with a similar sticker, a multicolored diamond with 3 numbers each within a smaller blue, red, and yellow diamond. It was a hazard sticker though Misaka wasn't skilled enough to decipher it she noticed that many of the numbers within the yellow diamond were quite high.

The containers were also labeled with chemical formulas, though Misaka didn't really understand those either. However underneath the chemical formulas was another label, and this was what finally made Misaka understand the danger she was in. The label had common names for what were in the various containers: Gunpowder, Nitroglycerin, TNT, C-4. And all the contents seemed to be scattered about on the floor, just waiting for a single spark or bit of heat to go off completely and bring this whole place down around their heads.

At the end of the room, next to another empty container, was a lone girl, Yashinko's other companion. Her name was Kazege if Misaka remembered correctly. She was trembling, appearing terribly frightened but also strangely brave, as if she was holding her ground in front of a hungry lion.

"Go away," she said. Her words were so quiet that Misaka could barely hear.

Misaka was not exactly inclined to do as she was told, but fighting was out of the question given the volatile nature of their current location. So she decided to try and talk. "Listen..." She began.

"GO AWAY!" The other girl yelled this time, her voice full of fear. She raised her hand and the iron sand blade that Misaka still had out and ready to use fused together in a solid clump of red and black flecked iron and dropped to the floor, getting rid of the electro-master's one weapon she could use without causing an explosion.

Knowing this it took a lot of guts for Misaka to say, "no. After all that STORM and Yashinko have put me and my friends through I'm not going to leave and let it continue."

"IT WASN'T HER FAULT!" Kazege yelled, "it wasn't her fault... it all just got out of hand. She never wanted this fight... she never wanted any of it. Please... go away..." with each word she got quieter and quieter until the final words which were said in the same whisper she had begun with. Tears streamed down her face.

Misaka thought over her words and considered them, then she took a deep breath and said, "maybe she didn't mean it but it doesn't change the fact that it happened and that it might continue happening. I'm not going away until I get a promise that it will stop, but if I can get that peacefully then I won't need to hurt anybody ok?"

"R... really," the other girl asked. She seemed hesitant to trust Misaka but she seemed even more hesitant to fight her, "promise you wont hurt Ya-chan?"

"I pro-" Misaka began until a gunshot suddenly rang through the corridors. Misaka, already strung up by the stressful situation, instinctively shot a lightning bolt in the direction of the sound. Luckily no explosives were set off, unluckily the lightning bolt created a massive flash and clap of thunder, causing Kazege to cower behind the container which stood next to her.

"LIAR" the now completely terrified little girl yelled as explosions suddenly started going off in the room. Big ones and small ones, randomly going off throughout the entire room with no apparent target.

The fringe of a few of the shockwaves served to knock Misaka out of the room into the hall were she quickly took cover behind the door frame. She glanced down the hallway. It would be easy to take another route but not only could that mean even greater opposition but it would also mean leaving a barely stable girl in a room full of explosives which were slowly destroying the building. She sighed and looked back into the room.

The explosions seemed to happen completely at random but the weird thing was that it did not seem to be a part of any sort of chain reaction, there didn't seem to be any sort of chain reaction. However that didn't change the fact that there were several deadly explosions happening a second and she had no way of traversing the room. She closed her eyes and tried to think.

That's when it hit her: Kazege's power. Her power must have been the thing that was making sure that the explosives didn't go off even when there was an explosion near them. Kazege's power was control over oxidation reactions. It even explained how her iron sand sword had been broken apart into its compound iron oxides.

Of course knowing that at this stage might not be much of a help… unless…

Misaka fired another lightning bolt to create another thunderclap. The explosions stopped momentarily as Kazege began sobbing harder, but the sounds of her crying were covered up the next second as the explosions resumed, though now they were slightly smaller than before. The electromaster continued creating thunder until the explosions continued even with the thunder ringing. Misaka figured that either the other girl had put earplugs in (much as she herself had done with the earplugs she had gotten from the kit when the first explosion had gone off and she had taken cover) or had done something else to lock herself off from the noise. But it had served its purpose. During that time she had managed to clear a small lane free from explosives using one half of the door to scoop and dump them. She had gotten as much room as possible before the door had been ripped to shreds by the explosions.

The only problem was that the lane wasn't wide enough to traverse safely with the explosions on the side and the remaining half of a door wasn't good enough protection right now. So she concentrated on the static she had spread throughout the room, concentrated on all of the electrons bounding about, and used one of her lesser used power to lower the electricity level throughout the room.

Contrary to popular belief Misaka's main power was not the creation of electricity. She did attract a constant, low level static charge(one that Kuroko was all too familiar with given it was what was released each night) and could control the flow of static electricity, but this was not what allowed her to wield a billion volts at once. Her true ability was the ability to alter the amount of energy that the electrons had, their elementary charge. This manipulation of energy allowed her to make a lightning bolt out of the same number of electrons that one would normally find in a cell phone battery.

However, not only could she increase the energy contained in electrons, but she could also decrease it. Passively this allowed her to be immune to electricity, but actively it wasn't much good. However, oxidation reactions were all about the exchange of electrons, so lowering the amount of energy that an electron held would also lower the energy of the oxidation reaction thus decreasing the size and power of the explosions.

With that done she picked up the other door with her powers and used it as a shield as she ran down the lane to the other end of the room. Then she ran towards the container Kazege was hiding behind. She was halfway there when she noticed the door open, she looked towards it only to see a bright red fire extinguisher speeding towards her. She barely made it in time to block it with the door. As footsteps resounded throughout the room out the door and down the hall. The door slammed shut behind them and the electronics were disabled like they had been on the door at the entrance.

Yashinko ran down the hallway at max speed, dragging along the sobbing Kazege by her hand. "there there," she tried to comfort, "I'm so sorry I left you but I'm here now and it's going to be alright. I have a plan, just follow me."

* * *

Author's Note: It's kind of hard to understand why Kazege is so upset and afraid when she's fighting Misaka. But as I see it, not only is she fighting a level 5, people so powerful they are capable of taking on a military force and winning, alone, but this particular level 5's ability is the embodiment of what she fears most. It would be like someone with a fear of snakes fighting Apep or someone with a fear of bugs fighting Mothra. Knowing that puts into perspective the dedication it must have taken for her to volunteer to hold her off while Yashinko escaped, and Yashinko's reluctance to allow her to do so.

Sorry for another late update by the way. The thing is I actually finished this chapter a couple days after my last one but it got deleted and working up the motivation to rewrite something is 1000 times more difficult than working up the motivation to write it in the first place.

Anyway, next chapter is the last of the Jericho arc (I mean it this time) and then there are 7-10 more chapters until the story is over.

* * *

Coming Soon: Return of the shadows,whispered favors and the mind's eye.

* * *

Dedications: I'd like to dedicate this chapter to all the people who have recently favorited my story, it makes me happy to see that you like my work. Don't be shy and write me a review too.


	43. Toaru Ishi no Hyōji

Toaru Ishi no Hyōji

A Certain Display of Intention

* * *

Rya grinned as she took the keycard she had stolen from Yashinko a while ago out of her pocket and slid it through the electronic lock on the wall turning one of the lights from red to green. Then she took what looked like a glove out and put it on. Then she pressed her thumb to the fingerprint scanner and waited a few seconds until the other light turned green and the door slid open. The room was unguarded and empty of people, not surprising considering her little pawn had tripped the alarm several minutes ago.

Now, laptop in hand, she walked into her rom, talking to herself as was her habit. It was a common trait of telepaths, either being overly quiet through an acquired aversion to interaction with people that came from being able to read their thoughts, or being overly loud in an attempt to drown out the background noise. Many chose music, Rya preferred the sound of her own voice. Right now she believed it was time for a bit of gloating.

The room which she was in was filled with databanks and computers holding the collective results from the Honogun Corporations Research and Development teams. Very few things were kept on a physical medium any more so this room contained almost everything that they had created through the years or were going to create in the future.

"It took months to get here," Rya said, "months cozying up to that worm Yashinko and playing along with her little club. It was a bit of fun undermining her efforts and ruining her reputation but it was really way too slow. Thank god the Queen dropped out and her faction fell apart or I might never have been able to find an opportunity to betray Yashinko."

Rya laughed a little, "and Misaka just made it too easy. She's so easy to manipulate. Simply alter a few of Yashinko's orders to get her and her friends a bit beaten up and she turns into the perfect weapon. A powerful little pawn that destroys everything in her path, all she needs is a path to go on. With this Yashinko will be hospitalized or maybe even killed," Rya said with glee apparent in her voice, "not only that but with all the armed guards in the building Misaka will probably be bumped off too. Two thorns out of my side for the price of one. "

"Not only that," She continued feeling even happier as she listed each of the many facets of her victory, "but now I have access to all of this companies records. Once I've downloaded every piece of data that I can fit and uploaded the little virus I got from that Riko guy, I'll have this entire place by the throat. I could blackmail it to my heart's content, or just steal what I can now and leak it to one of their competitors for a hefty fee."

"And the best part is, no one can stop me," she said as she put her laptop down on the nearest flat surface. A second past before she jerked to the side just a moment before a needle appeared in the place she had just been. She put her hand out and let the heavy metal pin fall into her gloved palm as she said, "Not even you."

* * *

Rya spun around, still appearing as if she was talking to thin air, "given that that was teleportation I'm guessing your Misaka's little crony, koko or whatever. I'd guess you were here to help her out but that wouldn't explain why you're here to hack into this place too. Not that that matters. Come on out of the shadows and fight me properly, though even if you don't you're still no match for me." She continued as she moved her hand up to block a kick that wasn't there, the leg that delivered it appearing only after the impact. Suddenly in front of Rya appeared a small individual dressed completely in a black catsuit, though either it was hardly form fitting or the person wearing it had a chest flatter than a table

"Interesting. How exactly did you do that huh? Your power isn't invisibility."

"I'm not invisible, you're just blind," A voice issued from the helmet of the suit. The voice was slightly disturbing. It sounded artificial, very flat, emotionless, and standardized, such that it would be impossible to tell anything about the person inside merely from listening, but it was not totally artificial, the intonation of the words were natural.

"Blind or not what I said before was true. You can't stop me. It's not like you can beat me in a fight, I've had years of martial arts training. Besides, if you heard what I said earlier you should know that Misaka's in danger. Yashinko's no match for her but all the security guards with all their guns are. She'll be swiss cheese before you know it."

"All the more reason to finish you off quickly," Kuroko said as she smiled under the helmet. Normally she would be off in a second to defend her Onee-sama but the only danger were the security guards, all of whom she had knocked out shortly after the alarm sounded. Though she had almost gotten shot before she could finish them all up, luckily the bullet missed. Not that it mattered. Today she was wearing the second part of the suit as well, the padding, making her even more bulletproof, "and you're not the only one with training."

* * *

So the fight continued. However something strange was going on, Kuroko wasn't winning. She undoubtedly had more experience than this other girl but none of her shots seemed to hit. It wasn't even that Rya was fast, but she seemed to be able to block almost before Kuroko herself had begun to move.

_You cannot lose this Shiro. You're wearing armor and she is not, nothing she can do can hurt you so abandon your subtlety, grab her arm, and flip her onto the floor. _Kuro suggested as Shiro kicked.

Then Kuro noticed something strange, Rya blocked the kick but she also adjusted her stance so that her arm was in a better position to defend against grapples and her eyes looked around. Kuro considered this and decided to test a theory. _'Strike from the top left,' _she thought as Shiro attempted to sweep Rya's feet.

Once again Rya dodged both of the attacks. Rya's power worked best in a fight. In a fight an untrained person's mind was usually on what they would be doing when the fight was done so their intentions for what happened in the actual fight weren't too strong but were still clear and readable. On the opposite end of the spectrum a trained martial artist was very fluid, any intentions for their moves were weak because they were able, ready, and willing to change what they were going to do in the middle of their move but even this could be read, in fact because a martial artist tended to think several moves in advance it was actually easier for her. Either way it was still enough to allow her, with all of her training, to beat pretty much anyone. Knowing exactly what your opponent was going to do was an invaluable tool in a fight.

Still this fight was different. This girl, Koko or something, obviously had even more experience than she did and she was wearing something akin to armor. None of the few blows that Rya landed seemed to have any effect, not only that but now there was a second person that she couldn't see. It must have been the one that had been cloaking her in the first place. Still Rya could hardly betray these doubts, so she arrogantly said, "Even with all your trickery and backup you can't win. The sooner you admit defeat the sooner y..." Suddenly Rya felt an overpowering will. As opposed to the vague and weak feelings from the fight, this was a powerful urge, something that the person feeling would do anything to fulfill: The urge to crush her arm into a fine powder.

She was momentarily stunned by the gruesome and overwhelming thought, long enough for Kuroko to finally land a hit, knocking Rya down onto floor. Happy that her plan was working Kuro continued.

Now on the floor, Rya tried to recover when she was suddenly bombarded by thoughts and intentions similar to before. Horrible feelings washed over Rya, a powerful desire to rip her apart piece by piece as slowly and painfully as possible. Her eyes widened in fear as she tried to back away towards the wall from this invisible person who seemed to want nothing more than causing her as much pain as possible. Over and over again these she felt these urges in the air, she had never felt such a strong urge to hurt someone before, she knew nothing would stop the person feeling them from hurting, torturing, killing her. The sheer power and grotesque nature of these intentions caused her to feel sick and puke as she looked all over the room for any sign of this invisible psychopath. She was so distracted that she didn't see as Kuroko walked up to her and knocked her out with a quick hit to the temple.

Once that was over Kuroko opened her mouth to speak but Kuro interrupted her, _What was that about?_

"I was about to ask you the same… I guess she's just mentally unstable. Either way," she began as she fiddled with a few of her helmet's buttons, "Either way we have some work to do here." She said, turning to the computer that she had been at before Rya had come into the room.

* * *

It had all begun at lunchtime when she saw that she had gotten a text from Birdy, with the subject "Urgent". Worried, she had gone to the roof to read it.

"Dad wants to speak to you after you're done with school. It's about those things you've been looking for. He says to meet him at the usual place and that it's really important for him, and you, and the entire city." Given that there were still Birdy's usual smattering of emoticons all over the text she guessed that she herself wasn't too worried, but the fact that it was completely typed out rather than Birdy's usual abbreviations and acronyms meant that she did understand it's importance. Not only that but she referred to Itora as "dad". Usually she only did so when talking about him getting caught, it meant that she was worried about him.

She texted back saying that she would head there after school then went to have lunch with her Onee-sama. She made up an excuse about having to do some more training and had gone to Garu's office in Mendeleev industries where the two CEO's were waiting for her.

"Ah welcome," Garu said, slightly surprised by her sudden appearance. His office had quite a bit of security but it, like the rest of the world, was as vulnerable as anything to teleportation. It was slightly disturbing, to know that no lock could defend you from invasion, even if it was only one person who could invade.

"Glad you're here, we have some news regarding the Horns of Jericho. It appears that the Honoguns have managed to acquire one and are working on replicating it as we speak. If they succeed they can create enough to shut down every ESPer in the city, effectively putting it under their control. I hardly need to tell you how disastrous this would be for Academy City, if even one more of those are made then the consequences could be dire. However we don't have enough evidence of any of this to go to the police and our forces can hardly attack without there being enough media investigations to unearth the entire underworld. So I would like your help, you have proven as or even more able than Anti-Skill at things like this. We can give you all the information and supplies you'll need, so will you help us."

"Yes," Kuroko said simply and immediately. She understood exactly what would happen, she knew the power of these Capacity Downs, she had seen her Onee-sama, the 3rd most powerful level 5, left completely crippled by it. She knew what would happen if a group of people as powerful and cruel as the Honogun's were to suddenly have access to dozens. "Tell me what to do and I'll handle the rest."

For the next hour or so she was completely debriefed on the situation and her part in it. She was simply to wait until the employees went home then infiltrate the building, locate the room that held the blueprints and research data on the Horns, then destroy it, as well as any physical documentation on it.

Once she had been completely debriefed, she had armed up and waited until it was time. When she got here she was quick to destroy the physical documentation first, disappointed to see that the horn wasn't among the files and initial prototypes that were quickly and efficiently dealt with as she teleported them 80 meters straight down where they were quickly crushed by almost 400 pounds per square inch[1].

She then began to move towards the research database room but was slightly surprised when the alarm sounded. At the time she had thought that someone had noticed the sudden disappearance of most of the contents of one of the room on a hidden camera overseeing the room but now she guessed that her Onee-sama had set it off by accident.

Unfortunately Kuroko had, at the time, been very near the armory where almost every guard was currently arming or disarming for the shift change and the alarm had caused them to flood out of the room. It had taken her a while to dispose of all of them but the delay was apparently for the best as it had likely saved her Onee-sama's life.

When she was done dispatching the guards she had teleported into the research database room and had begun her deletion of the data of the target computer using the login information, obtained through the corporate spy who had first discovered this plan, that Itora had given her during the debriefing. She had hardly managed to get any done by the time Rya had opened the door. When that had happened she had hid and listened, finally striking when she could no longer contain her anger that someone would use her Onee-sama like that.

Of course now that she was done with that she got back on to her duty, wrapping up as quickly as she could then flipping on the tracker. She trusted in her Onee-sama's ability to defend herself but it wouldn't hurt to check up on her. She turned cloaking back on then left the room, dragging Rya out into the hallway. With that done she activated the explosives she had planted in the room, utterly destroying many of the memory banks and teleported away to the tiny blip on her sunglasses' map.

* * *

Misaka checked the door to see that the electronic lock had been effectively destroyed; preventing her from opening it like that, and unfortunately her iron sand supply had run out with that last fight. Still she was not without her wits and she quickly formulated a cunning plan to get the door open.

Abandoning any hint of subtlety that still remained, Misaka levitated the remains of the other door with her electro-magnetism. She floated it across the room then quickly sent it flying back, ramming the other door with enough power to destroy it. With that she followed the direction she had heard the footsteps going towards. On her way she was surprised to see the heaped bodies of what looked to be around 20 security guards all in armor though lacking guns for some reason or another.

Misaka soon arrived at another, much larger, door, however this one opened as she walked up to it, allowing her entrance into another room. This room was far bigger than the other one and lined on both sides by robots of various sizes with one massive robot in the middle. In an adjoining room at the far end, behind a thick sheet of bulletproof glass was Yashinko, with Kazege still sobbing at her feet.

The doors slammed shut behind her as the robot in the center of the room activated. It towered 10 to 12 feet tall and bristled with weapons. Suddenly it lunged forward with surprising speed leaving Misaka barely enough time to vacate the spot she had been where the robots giant fist was now lodged.

Using her powers she shot herself towards the steel-plated walls, landing on one of the small robots as the large one turned back towards her and lowered its other arm, which was actually a massive machine gun, at her. Quickly she jumped behind the robot she was on and used it as a shield. The powerful, full metal jacketed bullets were making quick work of the thick armor however and one of the robot's large bladed arms was soon shot completely off with the torso almost ready to follow.

Thinking quickly Misaka shot the robot that she was using as a shield at the larger one. The bigger one batted it aside like an annoying fly with its fist. In that time however Misaka had managed to close the distance and was wielding the smaller robot's fallen off blade arm with her power. A quick slice cut off the joint where the gun connected sending it and the ammo clattering to the floor, embedding her weapon into the ground in the process.

Unfortunately this hardly stopped the giant metal machine which sped backwards as what looked to be a large rectangular box flipped from its back onto its shoulder. Then the front swung up and Misaka's eyes widened as she saw that it was full of missiles.

The missiles launched out of the container coming at her at speed. But the electro-master was quick and used her power on the cupronickle plated full metal jacketed bullets that the robot hadn't yet fired when Misaka destroyed its arm. She whipped them towards the missiles as if they were the iron sand of her Satetsuken. The bullets shredded through the missiles, destroying them in a series of eight explosions.

Next Misaka fired a powerful lightning bolt right at the metal monstrosities feet. However the tires that it used to move were made of rubber and the solid steel floor plate dispersed the lightning so no harm was done.

Now ready to finally finish this fight up the robot began to move towards her only to discover that it was stuck. While the rubber tires had insulated it from the electric shock the heat that the lightning had produced when it had hit the floor had melted the rubber together, preventing the machine from moving.

Now that her enemy was immobile, Misaka took a deep breath and drew the remaing bullets into a small cloud around her right hand. She could feel Yashinko manipulating the robot's circuitry which meant there was nobody inside. That meant that she didn't need to hold back.

Drawing her hand back then rapidly forward again she fired the 50 cupronickle bullets at 3 times the speed of sound right at the robot. The cloud of bullets spread out as she fired, shredding both the robot and the wall behind it apart.

Her enemy dispatched, Misaka now turned towards Yashinko. But before she could do anything she was surrounded by the smaller robots. The ones who had guns fixed them onto her, ready to fire at a moment's notice. She was completely trapped.

* * *

Now that she had the level five exactly where she wanted her Yashinko readied her power to set the robots to shoot, but before that she wanted to know why the electro-master had gone so far for revenge. Speaking into a microphone, the technopath addressed the electro-master, "You've gone too far this time, invading my home and hurting Ka-chan."

"**I've **gone too far? You were the one who started this whole mess. You hurt me and you hurt my friends and I'm not going to allow it to continue," Misaka stated with anger in her voice.

"I didn't mean to hurt anyone, and you've hurt my people more than I've hurt yours. You've escalated this conflict as much as I have. This is as much your fault as mine. If you're eager enough to come to my father's company and knock out all of his employees just to end this then you clearly want this war more than I do."

Misaka was about to respond when suddenly another voice cut into their conversation. It sounded like a recording of a familiar voice, "It took months to get here," The voice said, echoing from the speakers in the room, "months cozying up to that worm Yashinko and playing along with her little club. It was a bit of fun undermining her efforts and ruining her reputation but it was really way too slow. Thank god the Queen dropped out and her faction fell apart or I might never have been able to find an opportunity to betray Yashinko."

The person in the recording laughed a little, "and Misaka just made it too easy. She's so easy to manipulate. Simply alter a few of Yashinko's orders to get her and her friends a bit beaten up and she turns into the perfect weapon. A powerful little pawn that destroys everything in her path, all she needs is a path to go on. With this Yashinko will be hospitalized or maybe even killed," the voice was full of glee as it continued, "not only that but with all the armed guards in the building Misaka will probably be bumped off too. Two thorns out of my side for the price of one. "

The voice continued for a few more paragraphs then stopped. Suddenly the microphone was destroyed as if with an invisible hand. Yashinko had been so distracted talking and listening that she hadn't even realized it when a piece of technology had appeared in the room right next to her.

"The girl's coming her was not her fault, nor were the unconscious security guards," A voice said, flat and artificial, "what happened to you was the fault of your subordinate. It was betrayal. And as for what has happened here, what will happen to your father… it is the fault of me. Judgment desu no [2]."

* * *

Then, before Yashinko could do or say a thing, she was knocked unconscious by a quick hit to the head, with the same happening to Kazege shortly afterwards. After she had done that she left the room. She had managed to save her Onee-sama with that recording.

It was yet another one of the suits many fabulous features was its ability to automatically record and reproduce sounds that had happened within a couple minutes with the ability to save parts of the recording for the suits database, which she had done with Rya's gloating to herself. She had intended to use it as a confession when she brought her in for her crimes but she was glad it had served an even more meaningful purpose.

With that done she began heading off. Her Onee-sama was safe and she had one more person to find before she could reveal herself to the older girl. Not that she was going to anyway. She knew that she was here for her own personal revenge but she would prefer the electro-master didn't know why she was here or that she was here at all.

* * *

Shortly after the recording had finished all the robots surrounding Misaka suddenly shut down. She looked to the room where Yashinko had been and saw that she could no longer see her in it. She went over to investigate and discovered that the two girls were unconscious. Whoever had played that recording (and knocked out the guards on the way here in all probability) must have knocked them out too.

Misaka clenched her hand into a fist, angered that she had been manipulated. Next time she saw Rya she would make sure to give her a piece of her mind, until then she saw fit to forgive Yashinko for what she had done.

So she began to look for the exit. The door leading to the way back was locked and the lock disabled. It was too thick to break easily and she was too tired to used her powers to any great degree, so she went through the door at the far end with the intention of circiling back. She recalled the map she had seen and began walking through the corridors back towards the entrance until she came to a room.

'Right through here and then a few more corridors and I'll be back at the entrance,' she thought to herself as she opened the door and walked through only for this one to slam shut and lock behind her as well. Misaka groaned as she fell into another trap.

This room was different from the others. It was large and consisted of what seemed to be two stories. If Misaka remembered this was where the general work floor was and the second story contained the offices of the CEO and overseer. A large scaffold like wall lead up to it but it was otherwise inaccessible from this room. On top of this looking down on her was a man with a suitcase in his hands. Beneath him on the main floor were two guards with guns pointed at her.

"Ah, how serendipitous that you choose this route," the man with the suitcase said, looking down at her. His voice hardly sounded surprised (why would it be, he had locked down all other paths). "The famous level five, the railgun. You'll be a valuable research subject. Let's start the experiment now," he said as he opened the suitcase and flipped a switch. Suddenly a loud high-pitched noise filled the room and Misaka fell to her knees. She recognized this noise, the only noise which could completely shut down her powers, as they were right now.

"Blow her leg off beneath the knee. She should survive that and it seems like a good price for all the trouble she's caused." He ordered casually, as if he was ordering what to have for dinner.

Misaka's eyes widened as they lowered their guns at her. She could do nothing, she was powerless and the pain from the capacity down kept her immobile. She shut her eyes tight and listened as the shots reverberated around the room. Opening her eyes when she realized she wasn't feeling any pain. When she did so she saw someone kneeling in front of her, the person held themselves to completely cover her, blocking any bullets from hitting her by planting herself in the way.

* * *

Kuroko had hardly expected to teleport into such a scene and she had utterly panicked when the Horn had been suddenly activated when she was still too far away from Misaka to do anything and Kuro took over. She knew how Kuro felt about her Onee-sama, she was sure she would let her die.

But instead Kuro lunged in front of her and waited until all 60 bullets, 30 from each of the automatic rifles that the guards carried, had hit her and the clicks of empty barrels was all that could be heard. When this happened she lunged forward, ignoring the immense pain. She was over to the first guard in the blink of an eye and she slugged him hard, knocking him unconscious. Then she grabbed his empty gun before it hit the floor and spun on her heel, chucking it hard at the other guard. It clipped his head and knocked him out too

Then she turned to the wall and jumped up. The scaffold was easy to climb and she was up the ten foot wall in half a second. She pushed herself up and over the rail and tackled the man on top to the ground.

Now out of sight of the pereskia Kuro spoke calmly and quietly to the man as she kept a hand pressed hard over his mouth, preventing him from making any sound. _"A message from the Board of Merchants Honogun. 'if you break the rules, so do we'."_ She said, then she plunged her other hand into the man's eye socket and plucked the orb out, crushing it in her hands. She could feel the screams of pain muffled beneath her hand. She hit him again to knock him out and stop the screaming. Then she retrieved something from his pocket.

* * *

With her last mission done she stood up and walked over to the capacity down and turned it off. Then she picked it up and hopped over the railing to the floor. She walked over to the pereskia, who was just recovering . She stopped in front of her and she spoke, "Thanks," she said.

Kuro didn't respond, simply walking past her and out the door. "wait," the pereskia called and followed her. She walked through the corridors, opening any locked doors in her way with the master keycard she had taken from Honogun's pocket.

No more words were exchanged between the two as she left the building, the pereskia tailing her. All was silent as they walked for around a minute, then Shiro spoke up.

You saved Onee-sama

"_I did,"_ Kuro replied. The microphone of the otherwise soundproof helmet was turned off so literally no sound escaped as they walked through the corridors.

I thought you hated Onee-sama…

"_I dislike her, but you care about her and I care about you. I would not rob you of something you loved because of my own petty dislike. I would not sacrifice your life to save her as you would if I had the choice, but if it will not kill you in the process I promise to protect the people you care about any time I need to take over your body, even if I find them detestable."_

Thank you.

* * *

"Who are you," Misaka's curiosity finally bursting as she asked the strange person dressed all in black who had saved her life. The person stopped and turned to her then they walked up. Misaka was cautious but she doubted they would hurt her and she wanted to see what they were doing. Finally they stood about a foot away from her, hand on the lower part of their helmet's visor. Misaka was about to speak up when suddenly the person was on her and something soft and familiar was pressing against her lips.

A few seconds later and they separated. "Kuroko?" Misaka asked, confused as to why the teleporter was here in that outfit and a bit embarrassed that she had had enough practice to be able to tell exactly who it was from just a kiss.

"I'm surprised you're surprised Onee-sama," she said as she took the helmet off completely and teleported the briefcase into one of her secret spots which happened to be within 100 meters of her, "don't you remember what I told you?'

Misaka thought for a second then smiled as she remembered what had been on the notecard in the emergency kit. "You are never alone," she recited. "I guess this is twice you've saved me. I guess that makes us even on that front," she said, recalling the two times she had saved the younger girl before they had become roommates.

'Not quite, I still owe you so much, more than I can ever pay back, for saving me from me,' Kuroko thought, but out loud she asked, "are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. What about you? You got hit with a lot of bullets back there… how did you even survive?" She said, getting more and more worried as she recalled what had happened.

"I'm fine I'm fine," she waved off and tapped her chest, "bullet-proof armor. I'm going to have some bruises tomorrow, but I should be fine."

"Where did you get that?" Misaka asked.

"Same place as the nightstick and flash grenades. From a military surplus supplier," the younger girl replied. It was a half-truth since technically the Black Market did sell lots of military surplus.

Misaka nodded, grateful that Kuroko hadn't been hurt, then she noticed something else, "what happened to the suitcase you were carrying?"

"Oh I destroyed it, teleported it straight down as far as I could," she lied, " I was too worried about you to remember to do so until you spoke up."

"Do you know what it was," the electro-master asked.

"From the sound of it… a capacity down. I managed to turn the sound proofing on in my helmet as soon as I heard it so I wasn't affected," Kuroko lied again. She knew that she had been powerless even with the suit's protective measures. The power of the capacity down didn't need to be heard to affect people.

Wanting to end the interrogation quickly, the teleporter took Misaka's hand, "We should probably hurry if we want to be home by curfew," she said and began teleporting back home.

* * *

When they got back Misaka went into the bathroom for a nice shower as Kuroko stripped out of her armor and put it back in her sports bag. With that done she walked over to the bathroom door. She could hear the shower running inside. She reached up to the knob and turned it, surprised to see that it was unlocked. She guessed that was simply from her Onee-sama forgetting to do so because she was tired and stressed, but that didn't stop her from taking it as a deliberate invitation and quietly walked in.

The warm water from the shower poured over Misaka as she began to relax. The difficult conflict was finally over and she had made it out mostly unscathed.

Suddenly she heard something behind her, she turned to see Kuroko standing naked behind her with a gentle smile. Misaka's eyes widened in surprise and she drew the shower curtain up to hide her as she drew her fist back and sparks shot from her forehead, instinctively ready to punish Kuroko harshly. Before she could go through with it however she saw the other's girl's chest and the skin, which had only just recently recovered, showed signs of severe bruising. Her fist fell back to her side and the sparks died, her anger, however, did not and she yelled at the other girl, "WHAT THE HELL! I'M IN HERE KUROKO,"

"It's lights out soon," the other girl responded as water began hitting her form causing an almost imperceptible wince of pain, "there's not enough time for us each to have a shower separately and you're not the only one who needs one after today."

"Then you take it," she said as she began to step out of the tub, not wanting to argue while she was naked.

However before she could leave she felt Kuroko's arms wrap around her in a tight embrace. "Don't leave," the younger girl asked, her voice pleading, "back there… when you were being attacked… you were so close to dying… I was so worried… I don't want you to leave me." Her voice was shaking but the water pouring on them from the shower head made it hard to tell if those were tears that were rolling down her shoulder where the younger girl's head was buried.

The sincerity in her voice weakened Misaka's resolve but the skin on skin contact was making her incredibly uncomfortable. Her soft skin interrupted only by the rough strips of scar tissue and the wet gauze of the bandage that was still wrapped around her lower stomach were pressed against Misaka's bare back. Kuroko's arms were wrapped around her bare stomach with her head resting on Misaka's shoulder. The heartbeat was close and loud in Misaka's ears, though it could hardly compare to Misaka's own thundering heart. "I'm not going to leave you," she said carefully, "I just don't want to shower with you, it's too much right now."

Kuroko replied with only one word, "Please…" she said.

That one word was just enough to convince the wavering electro-master. "Fine… just back up a little bit okay."

there was a pause as the arms let go of her and the teleporter stepped back slightly, "can I wash your back and hair?" she asked, deciding to push her luck.

She was surprised to hear her Onee-sama say, "… eyes up and if your hands wander I will hurt you." Which was the closest thing to a yes that she would ever receive.

She smiled widely as she gratefully accepted her cosmic reward for her work tonight.

* * *

[1]: This is one reason why I think Kuroko is immensely powerful. At 80 meters below the surface of water the pressure is around 130 psi. Since the earth's crust has an average density 3 times greater than water this would triple leading to the figure mentioned, probably even higher given that there is something on top of it. This would be enough to effectively crush anyone or anything she, or any other teleporter, teleported downwards and there would be no evidence of it either.

[2]: "It is Judgment".

* * *

Author's Note: With this the battle of STORM and the Jericho arc comes to a close. Rya was soon afterwards placed in an asylum after Kuro's psychological warfare finally broke her already fragile mind. The Honogun Coroporation's stock plummeted after the attack on their headquarters, an incident that oddly was not reported to the police, but the company was saved from collapsing when it was purchased by Mind Over Matter, Itora's company. He kept Honogun as the CEO but now Itora has his men overseeing Honogun's every move. STORM disbanded as Yashinko was finally stood up for herself and told her father that she didn't want to have a faction. She successfully wrestled some freedom to do what she wanted back and now spends her days hanging out with her imouto-ka-chan and enjoying that freedom. And Community finally got its fourth season.

A pretty good ending I think.

But here the real battle begins for Misaka and her friends.

* * *

Coming Soon: Out of the frying pan into the fire, the sweltering springtime faceoff.


	44. Toaru Jikyū-ryoku no Tesuto

Toaru Jikyū-ryoku no tesuto

A Certain Test of Endurance

* * *

A loud blaring filled Uiharu's tiny apartment as the alarm clock went off. The tired girl fumbled around for it but as she reached over she only managed to unbalance herself and tumble out of bed onto the floor. She lay there for a second until she sat up and turned off her alarm clock to stop the annoying beeping.

Another few seconds passed as she remained motionless on the floor and yawned widely. Then she stood up and began to get ready, shedding off her pajamas as she walked over to her dresser to get dressed.

'Saturday,' she thought. She could dress casually today. 'Maybe I can even wear pants or shorts… foil Saten's efforts,' she smiled inwardly as she rummaged through her drawers and came across a nice pair of capris. But as much as the thought of the inevitable skirt flipping embarrassed her she still picked one of her usual thigh length school skirts to wear. She knew Misaka wore shorts under her skirt and had once considered a similar tactic but Saten always seemed so disheartened when she did so, seeing it as a sign of a deterioration of their friendship that Uiharu would take away something that brought them so close together.

So she picked out some cute panties to go with the skirt, a nice flower design today, and pulled on her shirt.

* * *

When she was finished getting dressed, Uiharu glanced over to the top of the dresser where many pictures were propped up. The first was a simple picture booth photo tucked inside a CD case to keep it propped up and visible. The photo showed Saten and her squeezed close together, the taller girl's arm wrapped tight around her shoulder as she pulled her as close as possible as she winked, grinned, and flashed a peace sign in her ever exuberant manner while the flower headed girl just tried to keep her smile up in that situation.

It was the first picture she had ever taken with a friend, but certainly not the last. The next photo was one that Konori had taken of her and Kuroko working diligently down at the office. Hunched over a computer their profiles were visible but their faces were turned away. Both had looks of determination on their faces as they worked to catch a notorious vandal who seemed to be able to deface things from a distance. Telekinesis was such a common power that it was hard to narrow down but in the end they had succeeded.

Next was a picture of her and Misaka, with Saten just off shot. It was during the Tokiwadai dorm open house so Misaka was in her maid outfit and seemed to be the focus of the picture. This was unsurprising as Kuroko had been the one to take it (despite the fact that she had not remembered such a thing) and had given her a copy.

The last was a photo of all four of them. It had been right after the whole Poltergeist incident and they had decided to take a commemoratory picture together. Predictably though, the picture, much like their friendship in general, was pretty chaotic. Kuroko clung onto Misaka in an affectionate, smothering hug while the older girl sparked in anger at this behavior, despite how expected it was, and Saten had picked that moment to flip her skirt. Luckily it was only the back that had flown up at that point so her panties weren't visible or anything but it was still an embarrassing memory.

There were two more picture on top. On the far end was a picture which showed her family, her mother and father and a much younger Uiharu taken before she had left for Academy City, another was more recent, taken during her one and only venture out of the City that she had taken just after passing the Judgment Exam. The hassle involved in leaving made it something that could only be done for the most special of occasions.

Still, it had been very good to see them. She talked with them regularly, calling every week to update them on her progress, but seeing them in person was so much better and the thought that it would likely be years before she did so again was a little sad. Still, Uiharu would endure it, as she had for the past six years, after all, she did talk to them and did have these pictures to help her soothe her homesickness that tiny little bit enough to make it bearable.

Pictures were practically a constant in this city. It was a city of kids without any true home or family. People needed something to root them and remind them of where they had come from and why they were doing what they were doing. Whether tucked away in frames at home or just stashed in a wallet, even the toughest, meanest gangster in the city still had a picture of mommy and daddy somewhere on the person.

There were, of course, some exceptions however. Saten's apartment had several and Misaka had a whole album full of childhood pictures, many of which contained her with one or both parents. But Kuroko's album only had pictures of Misaka. She had never seen a single picture that Kuroko owned that had anyone who could be her parents in it, she had no pictures of childhood, in fact, despite how prolific a photographer her friend was, she could probably count the pictures that she had seen with Kuroko in them on one hand.

Kuroko had said that she didn't like to dwell on the past, but sometimes it seemed that she didn't even have one. She never talked about her parents. She didn't seem to mind conversing about other people's pasts but when it came to her own she was either infuriatingly vague or, more often, the question killed the conversation and Kuroko's only answer would be a curt "get back to work Uiharu," even if they weren't actually doing work. It seemed that anything specific before their meeting was off limits, though there were a few clues it was hardly enough to give her any useful information.

* * *

Uiharu's own past was pretty standard for Academy City. Her parents were well-to-do enough to send her here but hardly wealthy enough to send her to a school like Tokiwadai. In fact her parents were probably more middle class than most, even going to the school she went to now was only possible because of assisted housing programs and an academic scholarship.

Any casual spending money that she wanted had to be earned herself. Luckily she had a talent for programming and made a bit of money creating firewalls on a freelance basis. She was known as the Gatekeeper for her most successful creation, the firewall that she had used to reinforce her branch's network. She was well known enough to be sought out but not enough to be truly successful. She wondered if one day she could open her own independent programming company within the city. She knew how lucrative such a business could be. There was one, fairly legendary, example of this. Simurgh Industries, which had been opened just a year ago and was already grossing in the hundreds of millions of Yen annually.

The only problem with that was that she had no talent or knowledge in how to run a business. That kind of thing was daunting for her.

"Maybe Saten would help," she thought out loud. Her friend certainly had a nose for money, as she constantly bragged, and seemed more than capable of doing the things which were necessary to running a business. As much as she whined about being talentless, and as hard as it was to find things she was good at when pressured to do so, she knew that Saten had excelled in business class and was good at mathematics as well. She had been talking about how she didn't know what to do for career day, which for their school was actually next Monday.

Even though it would be a long time until she was finished schooling and could actually do anything of the sort, Uiharu smiled at the idea of starting a business with her friend. The possibility of them spending every day together and working hard. She knew what it was like to work with a friend and knew that it could sometimes strain a relationship but she also knew that their friendship was strong enough that it could survive that.

'Friendship…' she repeated in her mind. She wondered about that. After what had gone on between her and Saten a week ago it was a little confusing where exactly they were at. They had admitted their feelings for each other and had even shared a couple kisses but they had also agreed that they weren't ready to take it too far yet. Still the opportunity was there to take at any time. Because they knew each other's feelings they didn't need to worry about whether they were reciprocated or not so all that would remain was their advancement from wherever they were at to wherever they were going whenever they were ready. Maybe they would already be married by the time Uiharu was ready to open a business.

'Marriage,' Uiharu thought. She pictured the sight in her head. She decided to go with the traditional white kimono for herself rather than one of the elaborate wedding dresses that Kuroko had been looking at a couple of weeks ago at that bridal shop she had insisted on checking out. Meanwhile Saten, much like Kuroko before her in her own imagination, walked down the aisle with a pure white tuxedo that made her look quite handsome.

Uiharu was a little surprised at how easily this image came to her mind, how readily it wanted to form. She was even more surprised that Saten was the one who came immediately to mind when she thought of something similar, she couldn't even imagine it being anyone else. But such was the nature of love she supposed.

Or at least that was the nature of her love. The nature of her other two friend's love was different and quite confusing. It had been more than a month since Kuroko had come back from her vacation happier than Uiharu had ever seen her, certainly happier than any vacation could make her. It had taken her about a week to completely figure out what was going on after that day, though it wasn't until the incident with that pain person that she truly understood the scale. She remained quiet about it though, she was quite good at keeping secrets. That kind of thing wasn't really her business and frankly she didn't really want to know about it.

It had actually been quite easy to figure out as well. Kuroko's past might be a complete enigma but the teleporter wore her emotions on her sleeve. Her emotions tended to be very powerful and hard to hide, it was why Uiharu was so terrified of her anger. Misaka too tended to be easy to read, her body betrayed her feelings and in general it was safe to assume that she was feeling the opposite of what she said she was feeling.

* * *

Those two were like that, both having almost two complete sides to them. With Kuroko it was a duality of existence. It was very easy to tell what she was feeling because her emotions were so strong but there were times –rare times but times nonetheless- that she seemed to feel nothing. Back when they were younger, when they were in that bank robbery, she had seen it in her eyes, that empty look of oblivion.

While there were many things about Kuroko that were clear as day to her, there were so many other things that were as mysterious as her past. It was almost as if she was a ghost, there and yet not there at the same time.

With Misaka it was more of a dissonance between what was expected and what was real. When her colleague had brought up the possibility of meeting the level five she had been so excited. She had conjured up a picture of an ideal oujo-sama, refined, classy, mature. She held girls from schools like Tokiwadai in the highest esteem, except Kuroko of course but that is because she met her as a fellow Judgment agent not as a Tokiwadai girl and that image had never truly stuck, the teleporter wasn't nearly delicate enough to be a Yamato Nadeshiko. However Misaka was even less refined, less classy, more childish, and about as delicate as Kuroko herself. She wasn't what she had expected and never really seemed to be.

Even the few things that she had been almost sure about Misaka had turned out to be false, as her current relationship showed. She wasn't sure if this breach of expectations was better or worse but it certainly allowed her to be friends with someone who, from seeing other girls of the same type, might otherwise be hard to befriend.

As opposed to her other friends dual-naturedness and predictability Saten was embarrassingly consistent and her actions irritatingly unguessable. With Saten some things were inevitable, her skirt being flipped on a near daily basis and the apology that followed, but apart from those inevitabilities it was impossible to predict what she would do. She supposed the best word to describe it was... reliable. Sure not everything that could be relied upon to happen was entirely pleasant but it was still as regular as clockwork.

Yep, Saten was the opposite of a computer. Full of life, spontaneous, and reliable, the only thing they had in common was their tendency to invade privacy. It made her question sometimes how they had ever become friends. She loved computers and at one time she had thought that computers and her parents might be all she would ever love.

Suddenly the doorbell rang. She walked over to answer it, opening the door.

"U-I-HA-RUUUUU!" was all she heard before she felt her skirt flip up.

'First flip so early in the morning?' she thought, 'It's going to be a long day.' Still, she couldn't think of a better person to spend it with.

* * *

"I just don't get it," Saten said, "this personal reality thing is ridiculous."

"It's hard at the beginning but it gets easier. Keep practicing. Remember what our teacher says? Try to picture your idyllic world and pretend it's real."

It was the most standard practice for strengthening your ability. The idyllic world often reflected both a person's personality and power. Uiharu was someone who endured, she had a lot of things that she needed to bear every day and though she didn't always like it she would just smile and carry on. Her idyllic world was a place where she didn't have to bear anything. The temperature was always just right, the weather was always good, nothing really changed. It wasn't anything special or ambitious but having a world free from ever being too hot or too cold was enough to allow her to get through the day and because of her power that was a reality.

"That doesn't really work. I'm happy with this world. Besides, I can't concentrate so hard on one thing for that long." Saten said and Uiharu agreed. Her friend was easily distracted; it was the flower headed girl's guess that that, along with the long haired girl's insatiable curiosity, explained her habit for searching through other peoples rooms when she came over to visit.

"So what's on the schedule for today?" Saten queried, changing topics.

"I have work," Uiharu told her. She wondered when she had started to refer to it as work. At first it had just been "Judgment". That was back when she was new to it and so excited to begin. Of course Judgment work was a lot like programming, for every bit of excitement and fun there were hours of coding, or in this case paperwork and mundane tasks, to go along with it to make it possible. This was especially true now what with her teleporter friend's scourge thing. Their district (and especially their branch) had once been had one of the higher crime rates of the city. Being in a region with a lot of schools and student recreational facilities, along with the edge of some of the more unfavorable parts of the city, meant that there were a lot of bored teenagers just a second away from becoming a delinquent.

This kept both Uiharu and Kuroko quite busy with more consistently exciting work than most branches. And with Kuroko's high level of skill when it came to hunting down and apprehending criminals and Uiharu's skill at finding both common criminals and the city's understandably high number of cyber-criminals they were also one of the most successful branches, leading to them having very good funding from the central office.

However even though they had a good success rate it was still far from 100% and because their district naturally had more crime there were as many or more people who were affected. This lead to a kind of animosity between the civilians and themselves. For every bit of gratitude they received from someone they had helped, there were ten voices of anger from people who they couldn't help or had helped too late. Judgment's reputation as a second late and a dollar short was known throughout the city.

That was another thing that had changed recently, for the better she believed. After the events of last week the reputation of Judgment as a whole, but especially the reputation of their branch, had gone up. Though Anti-Skill took most of the credit, enough people knew what had really gone on to finally give them some respect. The crime rate had plummeted as criminals became reluctant to break laws when they were in the hunting grounds of such an efficient soldier of justice and the civilians felt much safer knowing that there was finally someone who could protect them so well.

Of course this put more pressure on her. She knew that the crime rate would go back up and now she had to try and live up to that kind of reputation. That fight that Kuroko had with Misaka (at least that was what the flower headed girl guessed had happened given the limited evidence) and what had immediately followed would probably have unfortunate consequences down the road.

She had no idea how Kuroko had done it. It took her so long to find a single criminal or locate a single crime. To do what Kuroko had done must have taken such a powerful precog, a level four at least, and she had no idea where she had found one or why. Did she not trust Uiharu to help her? Was she right in doing so? She had been so effective without her, was she holding the teleporter back? Would she be abandoned in favor of this other person who was better at helping her?

It had felt like her friends were drifting apart from her, especially Kuroko but Misaka as well. It was part of the reason why she had been so happy that Saten was just getting closer to her; it made her feel less alone. But the others… it felt like they were keeping a secret from everyone else beyond their relationship and it felt like that secret was more important to them than their friendship with her. She told herself that was just what it meant to be friends with people like her friends—rich and powerful as they were—that she couldn't share in everything with them and that she would simply have to bear the hurt that she felt at the distance that was developing between them.

* * *

It was because of these feelings that she was surprised to see these very people who she was thought were drifting apart were waiting for her in Judgment offices. Konori was out of the room so it was just them four.

"Late as ever eh Uiharu?" Kuroko said, half-scolding but half-affectionate. She seemed to be quite happy, a gentle smile adorned her face.

"Not everyone can teleport Kuroko, and she lives far away," Misaka defended her. She was turned away so Uiharu couldn't glimpse her expression but her voice held embarrassment and nervousness.

"What are you two doing here?" she asked, happy to see them but wondering if there was a reason.

"Well I decided to check up on how my friend was doing without me. I know you're fully capable so I haven't been worrying too much recently but a visit every now and then can't hurt," the teleporter said sincerely. Uiharu was happy to hear that, she was glad to hear that her friend still trusted her and had only not visited her because she was worried that it would send across the wrong message.

Suddenly Misaka glanced her way and asked, "Saten isn't with you today?"

Uiharu turned around, confused. She was sure the long haired girl had been with her. But When she looked she saw no one. She was just about to speak when she heard a door open and close and Saten walked up the stairs. "The cake shop down the street was offering free samples of their newest flavor," she said, explaining her absence.

"Oh, really?" Uiharu asked, excited. That particular cake shop always had really good stuff but whenever she tried to eat there, usually during her shift, she was always snatched away by Kuroko and told to get back to work.

"Well they were," Saten said casually, "I had the last one."

"Oh, really?" Uiharu asked again, this time clearly disheartened, "were they go- "she was about to continue when Saten moved forward towards her. A sweetness suddenly invaded her mouth. She closed her eyes as her tongue rolled over the invasive, but welcome, presence. A warmth filled her body as the sweetness spread over her tongue.

"Just kidding," Saten said, "I made sure to get a sample for you too," she assured as Uiharu swallowed the delicious treat, "sorry for just shoving it in but the look on your face was priceless when you realized. And I only made a little mess," the long haired girl said as she moved to wipe off a little frosting from the corner of Uiharu's mouth and put it in her own mouth. "Tasty aren't they?"

Uiharu nodded as she blushed lightly. Suddenly from behind her she heard a familiar coo of "Onee-sama". She turned to see Kuroko sitting on Misaka's lap, a small piece of cake in her hand, "say ahhh," she commanded much to the electro-master's protests.

"Stop! Kuroko GET OFF!" she yelled, her voice filled with obvious anger. Suddenly the two were gone. A few seconds passed and suddenly the lights of the building shut off.

Uiharu and Saten sighed simultaneously at the antics of the two lovebirds as Uiharu walked over to the master circuit breaker (which they had moved up to the main floor since Misaka had become a regular visitor) and flipped the switch, turning the lights back on. The computers were hooked up to a separate system to prevent loss of data when this kind of thing happened so they were still safe.

Her friends and their conflicts always held such presence that Uiharu sometimes felt like a bit of a side character, an attitude certainly not helped by her friends' behavior as of late. Still she'd rather be a side character with good friends than a lonely, suffering protagonist.

Fifteen seconds later Misaka came barging into the room, clearly annoyed and embarrassed. She sat down hard in a chair facing the wall. It wasn't until another half a minute passed that the other girl teleported in, right near the sink, and began immediately running her tongue under cold water.

"Polnostʹyu stoit on[1]," Kuroko said in what sounded like a foreign language or just really, really bad slurring.

"Zatknisʹ," Misaka responded in the same language, firing another lightning bolt at the girl, this one more controlled. It hit her square in the back, scorching the vest of her uniform and causing a sudden muscle spasm that sent the teleporter's head into the metal faucet hard.

"Onee-sama, you'll damage my uniform," the teleporter whined, disregarding the lightning's effects on her as she righted herself and wiped off the trickle of blood that the impact had caused. Misaka suddenly looked guilty.

"Are you ok Kuroko," the electro-master asked as if she hadn't been the one who caused the injury.

"I'm fine," she said then she walked over to Uiharu, "I should probably get going, I have a lot of training to do. I'll be back on the beat on Monday. You'll be fine on your own until then," she spoke the last part as more of a statement than a question, utter confidence in her voice. This confidence helped ease Uiharu's worries that the teleporter was going to abandon her for someone she felt was more confident.

"Yep," she nodded with a smile, "I'll see you Monday. Have a nice time until then. Train hard." With that Kuroko left. Konori returned shortly after that and said that it was Uiharu's turn for patrol.

"And you two, try not to distract her this time. Her patrols are taking twice the time that they should," she scolded the others who decided to just head off , meaning this would be her first patrol alone since she joined up. Last time it had been disastrous, she had been far too shy to interact and she was too fragile to make arrests. Since then she had been exclusively support or had been accompanied by either Konori or Kuroko. However their staff was stretched to the limit with three people, with only two they couldn't afford such measures.

* * *

So she began wandering the streets of their branch's jurisdiction. At first everything was normal, as quiet as it had been the past couple of times. She helped out with the usual mundane stuff here and there and found that she had had a much easier time than before. She had become far more sociable.

However the peace of the late afternoon was shattered several hours later. She first saw the incident at a distance. An Anti-Skill van parked on the road, its lights on and its sirens blaring as the agent talked with a teenage kid. Suddenly a red glow surrounded him. He raised his hand and the agent was blown backwards, hitting the van hard enough to cause a dent and falling to the ground.

Uiharu was there before she knew it, standing in front of the agent, arms spread wide as she stared this glowing person down. "T-T-This is J-Judgment, s-surrender peacefully," she stuttered out, clearly afraid. But she wouldn't let the agent get hurt.

"Judgment eh?" He said mockingly then laughed, "kind of a pity. Judgment comes out and I don't even get the scourge. Kinda looking forward to killing her, becoming a legend myself," he grinned at Uiharu, "you don't know who you're dealing with do you kid?" He said as he pointed at the gas tank of a nearby car. A wave of shimmering air traveled the short distance and suddenly the windows of the car shattered at the sudden heat shock and the rubber seals around them melted and the door buckled.

"A pyrokineticist," Uiharu gasped knowing the signs despite the lack of fire.

"Don't call me that you dry twig. Pyrokinetics are useless, they waste so much energy igniting their fuel source and burning the surrounding oxygen when they could be putting it all into increasing their power. I don't bother with that, I go for pure heat," he said, demonstrating it by firing a small orb of searing air at a fire hydrant which suddenly exploded in a cloud of steam and shrapnel. All around him the heat began to rise rapidly, the nearby grass shriveling and the asphalt of the road visibly cracking at the thermal expansion.

The air was thick with the sound of hisses and pops as the radiant heat visibly strained the surroundings—cracking concrete and bending the thick metal of the nearby lampposts and traffic lights- and instantly evaporated the water in the air. Sweat poured down Uiharu's face as she struggled to catch a breath in the hot dry atmosphere. Behind her the unlucky and unconscious Anti-Skill agent with the glasses and the band-aid on her face was trying to do the same.

In front of her the man raised his hand towards her, "now that you understand do me a favor and die," he said as he fired another orb.

She closed her eyes but stood her ground as the wave of heat advanced towards her. She heard buckling metal and sizzling air and bubbling asphalt but then she realized that she wasn't dead. She opened her eyes and saw that the asphalt of the road around her had turned liquid, but there was a clear area, an orb around her, where the molten road seemed to stop.

The criminal in front of her seemed as surprised as she was to see her alive. But where it made Uiharu happy that she was still breathing it seemed to make him very, very angry. "I said die!" he yelled as he fired another orb, even bigger and hotter than the last one. Again it washed over her like a river flowing past a stone.

The man's response to this was simply to roar out in anger and try again and again and again. There was an effect, the air inside Uiharu's bubble got hotter and hotter, but it wasn't enough to kill. She focused on keeping the Anti-Skill person the same temperature. She could bear the heat but she didn't want someone who was already hurt trying to do the same.

Behind her the Anti-Skill van had almost completely melted away, the extreme heat melting the steel chassis and destroying most of the interior as well.

Sweat was pouring ever harder from Uiharu's face and she felt dizzier and more tired as the heat continued to go up and up. It was getting harder and harder to breath. Still she endured. She endured until finally, in a show of anger, the man in front of her raised his hand, seemingly calling on all his power, when suddenly the glow surrounding him seemed to spark and surge. The orb of heat in his hand died as the glow ebbed away and finally he fell onto the ground, unconscious.

Uiharu waited until she heard the wailing of an approaching Anti-Skill van until she did the same, falling back unconscious with the others.

* * *

The next thing she knew she was being shaken gently as a very familiar voice called, "Uiharu… Uiharu... are you ok?"

She opened her eyes to see Saten hovering over her. She looked worried but her eyes were turned away.

"Saten-san?" she spoke.

"Oh good you're up," her friend replied looking back at her then suddenly looking away with a blush.

Uiharu wondered what that was about for a second before realizing something. She felt cold, and wet. A rag was placed over her forehead and her body felt oddly light. She looked down and saw that she was immersed in a bath of water. Her eyes widened as she realized why Saten had been embarrassed and she quickly curled up in a little ball with an "eep" of embarrassment and surprise.

"I'm sorry," the long haired girl began, "You had heat stroke and I was told to keep you cool and what I'd need to do to look after you… I promise I tried not to look.

"I-It's fine," Uiharu said, sinking beneath the surface of the water with a deep scarlet blush extending from ear to ear, "thanks for helping me…"

"N-No problem," Saten stammered, just as embarrassed.

A short while passed in awkward silence, then Uiharu began to shiver. Immediately Saten stood up and picked up a towel from the nearby towel rack. She walked back over to Uiharu, holding it in front of her face, her head turned away. "Here, you should probably get out… I'll be waiting in the other room," she said as she handed the towel to Uiharu and left.

Uiharu took the towel and got out of the bath, beginning to dry off. She must have been in there for a while... her fingers were shriveled and she was actually cold. Because of her power it was difficult to change her body temperature, which might be one reason she got colds so often—lacking the ability to have a fever to fight the sickness off-. Her power had saved her today it seemed. Right now she was really happy that she had what she had always thought of as a lame power only useful for keeping her computer from overheating. It had been so much handier than control over flowers would have been.

She tried to think about the fight and tried to remember what had happened afterwards in an attempt to distract herself from the embarrassing situation she currently found herself in, a tactic which was successful for a few minutes while she dried off. But when she walked to the pile of clothes that Saten had placed on the floor for her she was brought back to earth by a shocking discovery.

"Saten, why is my underwear drawer on the floor?" she asked, immensely confused as to why the entire drawer of the dresser had been ripped out and left on the floor of the bathroom.

She heard something muttered that she couldn't make out. "What?" she asked.

"I couldn't decide," came the still meek reply, "I'm an observer, not a chooser. I'm sorry… it's been a long day for both of us… should I just go?"

"NO! no…" Uiharu quickly said. She didn't want her friend to go, even if it was embarrassing, "just stay… talk… what happened for you to make it such a long day?"

"Well… you see…" Saten began her story.

* * *

[1]: I'll go over what this means later on so no need to translate it or anything.

* * *

Author's Note: Well, this is my first of two limelight chapters. The next one focuses on Saten.

My ideal fiction –fanfiction or otherwise—is one where every single character lives up to their potential and the world (and people's action in it) are dictated by common sense unless there is another factor affecting it. Which leads to people who have more common sense (like Kuroko) seemingly becoming overpowered when in actuality all they are doing is meeting potential. In line with this I wanted to go over what I believed is the potential of these two as well as touch upon their feelings for what has happened so far.

Uiharu's power may be a little weaker than I had it in the chapter, but I can justify that as her power becoming temporarily stronger in a high stress situation: like Misaka's at the end of the anime. Anyway, it does have its uses. While she is not immune to the heat that is transferred via conduction, by controlling the temperature of the surrounding air she can be immune to the heat caused by convection, which would make her immune to fire and environmental temperature extremes, which has quite a bit of potential to be useful. Powered up it could even render her immune to explosions because that usually relies on heat to create the expansion of gases and hurt people (though the shrapnel could still kill her). Uiharu's power has a lot of speculation attached to it as the wiki reveals.

* * *

Coming Soon: The wind waker, showdown of the autumn breeze.

* * *

Dedications: Quite a few on this one, I'd like to thank : SelinaChan, Thegoh, Die Schreiberin, guest, and Drachnon for your reviews and all the people who have favorited me, thank you for that. This one's for all you guys/girls.


	45. Toaru Kikai no Kōgeki

Toaru Kikai no Kōgeki

A Certain Attack of Oppurtunity

* * *

Much like Uiharu, Saten was awoken that morning by a loud blaring, which she attempted to silence by hitting the snooze button. However this didn't quite work as, unlike Uiharu, that blaring came from 2 different alarm clocks, one of which was several feet away from her bed, too far for her to just reach over and smack onto the floor. So, to silence the annoying noise, she stood up and walked over to it and smacked the snooze button.

She stood in the middle of her room for a second wondering if she should go back to sleep, then she decided that that would be too much work. So she just stood there. Saten was not a morning person

She glanced at the clock. She saw that it was still quite a while before her flower headed friend had to go to work. She smiled and was suddenly infused with a burst of energy. Saten was not a morning person, she was, however, an Uiharu person. The thought of the other girl was enough to convince her tired body to move quickly as she got dressed in her usual outfit. As she did she looked around her apartment. All over were several pictures of her with her family and friends.

One could tell a lot about a person from what they kept in their room, especially what they kept hidden. In her case what she had hidden was a vase and a flowerpot that each held a few mangled flowers in them. It had been her horribly failed attempt at gardening that she had made in hopes of one day giving Uiharu hand grown flowers to add to her hair wreath instead of the usually artificial ones that she did give her. What was more telling was what could not be seen, the numerous previous attempts she had made to do the same.

She had been doing it since before she and Uiharu had even become friends. She had worked so hard to grow flowers with her only success being a single daisy. However it was perhaps a cosmic reward for her dedication to something, considering she normally dropped projects after a single day, that the daisy was truly beautiful and worthy of the girl who would become her friend.

So far that had been her only success since growing flowers secretly in an apartment was not the easiest thing to do. But it had been a success when she needed it most, so she was happy to just keep trying and hope that another flower would grow when need.

Rooting around her friends apartments had been what had told her the most about them. It had told her Uiharu was insecure, Misaka was nostalgic and childish, and Kuroko was desperate to grow up. It had also told her a lot about Uiharu's and Misaka's families and who they considered friends and a whole bunch of other stuff about them. However she had still learned very little about Kuroko, the photo album she found had warded her away from an urge to search, and revealing only her creepy stalkerish dedication to her older roommate. The only other thing she had discovered in a search of their room were a couple of boxes in their closet that were clearly Kuroko's. They were clearly the teleporter's because they were bound in chains with no apparent way to open it other than teleporting them off, like she had done to the wrapping paper of her presents on her birthday.

She thought back to that particular day. Birthdays had always been a happy occasion for her. She couldn't imagine living without them as Kuroko said she had done. It made her wonder what kind of parents she had that they hadn't even celebrated their child's birthday. She doubted she would ever find out though, her auburn haired friend never talked about her family

'Family…' She thought and smiled a little sadly as her eyes danced over a particular picture of her chasing her little brother when she was much younger. Underneath the picture was a stone, a smooth reddish brown one with a beautiful sheen that sparkled in the sunlight. Shortly before she had left her brother had walked up to her and given it to her, "It's my favorite," he had said, "but I want you to have it to remember me by. Promise me when you get back you'll give it back to me and we can play some tag." She never thought that she would actually miss that little snot until she actually left him behind.

That sorrow was actually followed by a little bit of guilt. The reason that he wasn't in Academy City like her was actually her fault. Academy City was expensive and her parents couldn't afford to send another child in unless they could be sure to get some return. Since ESPer potential was linked to genetics, when they had discovered that Saten couldn't manifest they decided that it wasn't worth it to send her brother there only to discover he couldn't either.

Of course her brother didn't blame her. She knew he was disappointed but he would never say that it was her he was disappointed in. the same was true with her parents, they were disappointed but they would never let it show and they would never even once blame her.

It was worse when she was around her friends, especially Misaka. The hope that came from hearing she was once a level one was eclipsed by the frustration that came with the same knowledge. It was more annoying to know that you can grow and see that you aren't than never knowing it in the beginning.

She thought back to a couple of days ago and what Kuroko had said, "The idea of talent is ridiculous. So is the idea that anyone finds anything easy. 'Nothing ever becomes easy, you simply get used to the hardship'."

Those words angered Saten because she at least partially agreed with them. But of course if talent didn't exist then the reason she didn't have powers was all her fault. The disappointment that her parents felt wasn't at the universe for cursing her with a lack of power and ability to improve, but it was actually at her for not choosing to improve.

Saten was what most might call "opportunistic". She had a great deal of patience, a truly surprising quality for someone who most would see as extremely restless and excited, and would usually wait for an opportunity to come along. That didn't mean that she did no work, seeking out those opportunities was a chore in and of itself, however it did mean that some things were more difficult to do. She never really had an opportunity to suddenly improve until she had seen Level Upper, and that had gone terribly. Improvement was done by constant training over a long period of time, and Saten wasn't the best at doing things like that. Kuroko's words, "before joining Judgment I usually trained about 80 hours a week to get to where I am now," were daunting. Even hearing them was enough to bore her out of her skull. All those things she could be doing with that time, all those missed opportunities to have fun and hang out with friends… was that what it took to be good?

Her friends were an unnaturally skilled group of people, especially for their age, but each of them had seemed so alone, with so few friends outside of their group of four. She knew that Uiharu had had no one at the beginning since she hadn't even joined Judgment by the time they became friends. Kuroko and Misaka seemed to have each other but before that Misaka hadn't had anyone, everyone driven off by her power and personality.

Kuroko… Kuroko was an odd case. She seemed to have friends beyond their group, as evidenced by the one fight that had gone on several weeks ago before when they had run into that Birdy girl (thinking back she now understood why Misaka had gotten angry and also why she had gotten embarrassed when she had brought up the "married couple" thing), but even when she was among all her friends she still seemed the most alone out of all of them.

She was glad she had become friends with them all though. It had sounded like an unpleasant thing at first, meeting two snobby rich girls one of whom was an arrogant level five. Still, it was an opportunity, and she was loathe to pass an opportunity up, especially an opportunity to connect to others, which was her second favorite kind, right after an opportunity to make the people she cared about happy. She was grateful she had taken it as well because it had given her two new friends. And even though Kuroko was haughty, scary at times, and perverted and Misaka was brash and often made her feel a bit insecure about her ability, she was happy to have their friendship.

By this time Saten had finally reached her destination. She rang the doorbell then crouched down, her hands touching the ground. When the door opened she announced in her most singsong voice, "U-I-HA-RUUUUU" and flipped her skirt, glimpsing the flower design panties and smiling.

* * *

"I just don't get it," Saten said to Uiharu as they walked to Judgment Branch 177, "this personal reality thing is ridiculous."

"It's hard at the beginning but it gets easier. Keep practicing. Remember what our teacher says? Try to picture your idyllic world and pretend it's real."

Saten had heard this before but it was hardly as easy as it sounded. Not because Saten lacked imagination though. It was just, as she looked to the girl walking beside her, hand intertwined with hers, she realized that there was nothing she could do to make this world better. Saten didn't care about much, she didn't want much. She took opportunities as they came and didn't really make plans. She had no real ambition or discontentment. Her ideal world was her and Uiharu just sitting beneath a tree, a warm breeze playing through the colorful leaves.

"That doesn't really work. I'm happy with this world. Besides, I can't concentrate so hard on one thing for that long," Saten explained. And it was was happy to have what she had and hopefully have it for a long time to come. That was one of the reasons that Uiharu's plan that she had talked about at the beginning of their walk, about starting her own company with Saten helping out with the business angle, had appealed to her so much. The opportunity to be with Uiharu even into adulthood was a fantastic opportunity, and she didn't mind business either. She liked to say she had a nose for money and she did have an eye for the particulars of business as well.

"What's on the schedule today?" She asked Uiharu, deciding to change the subject before she got too lost in daydreaming.

"I have work," she said, sounding a bit unhappy at that. Saten could guess why. She was probably lonely now that her colleague and friend was "on leave" as she called it. Or maybe it was because it would be taking away from the time that they could be spending together. Either way Saten looked for a way to cheer her up. Her eyes fell upon the small cake shop near the Branch Headquarters and the sign outside its windows. She separated from Uiharu while the girl was still deep in thought and went over to the shop. It seemed they were offering free samples of their new flavor. She tried one and found it was delicious. It was the perfect thing to cheer up Uiharu with. She took a sample and headed back to the office. When she got there Uiharu seemed to be looking where she had gone, "The cake shop down the street was offering free samples of their newest flavor," she said, explaining her absence.

"Oh, really?" Uiharu asked, excited. The excitement was cute and Saten decided to tease her just a little bit before she handed it over.

"Well they were," Saten said casually, hiding it in her palm behind her back, "I had the last one."

"Oh, really?" Uiharu asked again, this time clearly disheartened, "were they go- " she managed to get out before Saten popped the treat in her mouth. She was pretty accurate but a little bit missed.

"Just kidding," Saten said, "I made sure to get a sample for you too," she assured as Uiharu swallowed the delicious treat, "sorry for just shoving it in but the look on your face was priceless when you realized. And I only made a little mess," the long haired girl said as she moved to wipe off a little frosting from the corner of Uiharu's mouth and put it in her own mouth. "Tasty aren't they?" It was even tastier this time.

Uiharu blushed cutely in response. Then Saten heard a familiar voice speak "Onee-sama". She looked over Uiharu's shoulder to see Kuroko sitting on Misaka's lap, a small piece of cake in her hand, "say ahhh," she commanded much to the electro-master's protests. She hadn't even noticed that the two had been here, too distracted by Uiharu.

Uiharu and Saten sighed simultaneously at the antics of the two lovebirds as Uiharu walked over to the master circuit breaker and flipped the switch, turning the lights back on.

Fifteen seconds later Misaka came barging into the room, clearly annoyed and embarrassed. She sat down hard in a chair facing the wall. It wasn't until another half a minute passed that the other girl teleported in, right near the sink, and began immediately running her tongue under cold water.

"Polnostʹyu stoit on[1]," Kuroko said in what sounded like a foreign language or just really, really bad slurring.

"Zatknisʹ," Misaka responded in the same language, firing another lightning bolt at the girl, this one more controlled. It hit her square in the back, scorching the vest of her uniform and causing a sudden muscle spasm that sent the teleporter's head into the metal faucet hard. Saten winced at the sight and the dull thud that accompanied it.

"Onee-sama, you'll damage my uniform," the teleporter whined, disregarding the lightning's effects on her as she righted herself and wiped off the trickle of blood that the impact had caused. Misaka suddenly looked guilty.

"Are you ok Kuroko," the electro-master asked as if she hadn't been the one who caused the injury.

"I'm fine," she said then she walked over to Uiharu, "I should probably get going, I have a lot of training to do. I'll be back on the beat on Monday. You'll be fine on your own until then," she spoke the last part as more of a statement than a question, utter confidence in her voice.

"Yep," she nodded with a smile, "I'll see you Monday. Have a nice time until then. Train hard." With that Kuroko left. Konori returned shortly after that and said that it was Uiharu's turn for patrol.

"And you two, try not to distract her this time. Her patrols are taking twice the time that they should," she scolded the others who decided to just head off. Saten knew she wouldn't be able to accompany Uiharu without distracting her and getting her into trouble so she decided it would be ok to leave her alone just once.

* * *

So she found herself walking and talking with Misaka. It had actually been a while since this had last happened, since before her discovery of them. Saten knew she should be careful with this. "I was talking with Uiharu this morning. We were talking about Personal Realities and that practice where you picture your idyllic world."

"Oh? What kind of thing did you imagine?" Misaka asked.

"Well I kinda had problems with it. My perfect day is just hanging out with my friends. I'm ok with this world you know?"

"That's an optimistic outlook," Misaka said with a smile, "I suppose this world is pretty good… though a little too like an action movie at times."

"I was thinking it was more like a romantic comedy…" she said, "either way I suppose it's better than a drama or," she shuddered, "a soap opera. Those things are so cheesy."

"Or a documentary… think how boring that would be."

"I think it would actually be kind of exciting, having a narrator… maybe Jun Fukuyama? It would be cool having the Code Geass guy narrating our lives wouldn't it?"

"Eh, I don't think I'd like a guy doing it… I think Rie Kugimiya would be better."

Saten laughed in response, "I should've expected that you'd choose the Queen of Tsunderes."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Misaka asked angrily but with a blush on her face demonstrating her meaning more perfectly than she ever could. A few seconds passed in silence before she spoke again, "what's wrong with being a tsundere anyway?"

"Well," Saten began, seizing the window of opportunity presented to her to act as a relationship counselor for the first time since she had actually begun to understand the relationship, "I have nothing against them personally. They have their reasons and they can actually be kind of endearing, but you have to feel sorry for Saito and Hayate. As durable as they are it can't be easy to deal with a tsundere's rage, especially if they're particularly violent."

The guilt that flashed across her friends face told Saten that her words had hit home and that Misaka understood at least on some level, "but they choose it… well maybe not those two but Ryujji certainly chose to stay even if Taiga was violent."

"You're right… I guess they're just masochists who deserve anything they get," Saten conceded. Though she didn't mean it she had to admit that Kuroko might actually be a little bit of a masochist… but that was beside the point.

"I'm not saying that," Misaka predictably argued, "I'm just saying that it's as much them as Rie's characters. They don't have to stay and they don't have to do the things that make them get hurt."

"True. But you still have to ask if they deserve as much as they get. What they do isn't that bad. They're just trying to show affection."

"They do it wrong. It's only for the perverted things, I don't punish Kuroko for hugs and kisses as long as we're not in public." She said, frustrated. A second past before Misaka realized what she had just said. The long haired girl almost heard the click of realization and the rush of blood to her face.

* * *

Saten wondered if this was the right opportunity to talk about that, but Misaka ran off with an ever-deepening blush the next second, convincing the level zero that now probably wasn't the right time after all.

Still it was nice to get confirmation. She felt an odd sense of accomplishment, like the one she felt when they solved a mystery, albeit to a smaller degree.

She did love a good mystery every now and then; even the concept of a mystery was enough to excite her. It was why she loved the urban legend sites. It was even more fun when something on them turned out to be true: like the level upper or poltergeist… or the scourge. Recently that was the biggest news after all. The whole thing had exploded shortly after it had happened. People loved stories like that so it wasn't surprising that the message boards of so many sites had exploded with rumors.

Still she doubted that those other rumors were untrue. She had stumbled upon a pattern among that particular site. The first posts were usually the most accurate ones, though they were usually way, way more vague than that. It was almost like the person who had posted it had some sort of personal connection to it.

She shook herself and reminded herself that she didn't really want to know about it. She was curious and worried for her friend but as much as she loved gathering information about her friends she had promised herself in elementary school that she would never indulge in rumors when it concerned people she cared about.

Instead she thought about the other recent rumors. There was a group of rumors about a device which could disable ESPer powers. When Saten had read about it she had thought about Capacity Down but when she had read that it could be carried around by a single person she had dismissed it. The last one had taken up a truck and she doubted it could shrink that much in that little time. Besides, she was immune to it anyway, the one perk of being a level zero. The other rumor was a fairly insignificant one about a group of "delinquent rehabilitation" facilities that were being built.

It was actually kind of a pity that nothing exciting was going on. She had recently developed quite a taste for adventure and action, even if she was next to useless at it. Though when she did manage to help, with the whole smashing of the capacity down and all, it was such an amazing feeling.

* * *

It was around that time that she saw a teenager a few years older than herself cornered by 3 big tough looking guys. She couldn't tell if he was being mugged or what but she could clearly see that he was in trouble. She looked around for someone but there was no one.

No one but her. "Hey!" she started to speak as she went over. Then something happened that surprised her. The teenager began to glow with a green aura. He raised his hand and suddenly a massive gust of wind swept up the 3 thugs and sent them crashing into the wall and knocking them unconscious. Saten heard a crack among the three whumps of impacts making her wonder who was really in trouble now.

Had that been the end she could have walked away. After all he did it in self-defense. However he didn't stop there. The strong wind continued to gust in a circular manner, this time twisting around sweeping up dust and debris as well as the 3 unconscious thugs, battering them with rocks and bits of piping as well as an empty garbage can.

The glowing around the other man intensified as other tornadoes began to touch down around him. The clouds in the sky itself began coiling around these cyclones. The cars in the street began sliding around and the branches of the small trees planted in the neighboring park blustered in the strong wind, some snapping off entirely as the saplings began tilting towards the swirling winds. "You Skillout thugs are true idiots you know that? You might have us ESPers outnumbered but we have you outmatched by far."

A sickening crunch sounded from one of the Skillout thugs as a dumpster was lifted into the twister hitting him hard. "HEY!" Saten called but the blowing wind drowned out her words. She looked to the side to see that there was a piece of lead piping near her as well as a few small rocks. She picked up the pipe and a rock. Holding the pipe like a baseball bat, she chucked the rock upward and hit the improvised baseball with her improvised bat.

Saten's baseball experience wasn't too great. She was on the team (because their school forced them to join at least one club or afterschool activity) but she wasn't exactly the best. She had great power and often hit the ball but she had horrible accuracy, mostly getting foul balls when she was up. This time as well her shot went wide of the mark, but this time that was a good thing. The twisting winds would have messed up the shot anyway. But as it turned out they guided her shot which otherwise would have missed right into the back of the man. This distracted him enough that the tornado that was holding up the thugs dropped them onto the ground and made the man turn to her.

Now she spoke, "That's enough," she said, "I know they were picking on you but you don't need to hurt them that much in return. It makes you no better than they are."

"You're defending them? Those thugs pick on ESPers for no reason other than jealous and you defend them? I never claimed to be a better person than they are, but what I am, what all ESPers are, is stronger than they are and it's time to remind those no good zeroes of that. And I'm not gonna let a girl like you stand in my way," he said inhaling through his nose and blowing out, sending a gust of wind down the alley. It wasn't enough to blast her back but it did send her skirt flying up, "flowers… how cute." He teased, remarking upon her panties which matched Uiharu's today, as they often did. For a second Saten understood how her friend felt as she pushed her skirt back down around her legs, after all it was surprisingly chilly to have one's skirt flipped, the cold breeze tickling one's thighs. That must be why Uiharu didn't like it.

"I'm not defending what they did; I'm just saying that you shouldn't be hurting them so much."

"Would you prefer I hurt you?" he asked and without waiting for an answer he pointed to the sky and then at Saten, who was suddenly surrounded by a blustering gale. The high speed wind swept up the surrounding sharp rocks and twigs creating a sort of barrier. If she tried to pass through it the rocks would cut her up. She decided to stay put, amazed at this person's power, "I didn't think so. So just stay there."

"Who are you, what are you," she asked. This person's power was so overwhelming, he must be a high level power user.

"Roku, Level 2 Aerohand" he said simply as he turned back to the thugs, one of whom seemed to have regained consciousness. He was talking on what looked to be a walkie talkie. "Boss come here, we got an uppity brat who thinks he's hot just 'cause he's got his fancy powers."

A powerful gust of wind suddenly swept him up and launched him into the wall again. "Feel free to call in backup I'll defeat them too. You're all just zeros after all," Roku laughed, "and with this power increase there ain't no way I'm losing." Though the double negative was accidental it turned out to be more accurate than they thought when a large truck suddenly screeched up to their position. It stopped and its sides began to raise up revealing walls of speakers and suddenly the air was filled with a high pitched sound as the wind suddenly died down.

"Argh," Roku screamed, covering his ears and pointing a hand at the van. Nothing happened for a couple seconds then a massive air blast, even more powerful than the ones before, pushed the van away and flipped it over, the move accompanied by a flash of the green aura which surrounded him, which was otherwise dimmed by the sound. But the sound did not stop.

Now he pointed his hand at the dumpster near the three Skillout thugs, "Damn you, I'LL KILL YOU!" He yelled but nothing happened for a few more seconds. Then it suddenly lifted up in a surprisingly powerful gust of air, lifting up even further than he had meant it to. Still it was enough, now he began moving his arm down, attempting to blow it as fast as he could right at the three, hoping to crush them beneath the weight.

But Saten, who had been freed when the sound had started, saw what he intended to do. Knowing she couldn't make it in time she again picked up a rock and hit it. This time there was no wind to either help or hinder her meaning it was skill alone which guided the rock to strike Roku's arm knocking it aside just enough to cause the dumpster to embed itself into the wall behind the three leaving them unharmed.

Unfortunately for Saten, though fortunately for the unconscious and defenseless Skillout members, this also turned Roku's attention to her. "So you want to die too huh? Well then die!" He said, raising his arm towards her. But his aura was still dim and his power was still nonfunctioning. This presented an opportunity for Saten, which she took. She ran at him full speed, ready to attack. She had almost gotten there when the gust came sending her shooting down the alley.

She was quick to recover, taken just a few seconds to stop rolling and pick herself up. But this was enough time for Roku to line up a shot and fire a projectile, one of the scooters parked in the road, directly at her but she dodged it and confirmed her theory.

Her years of clock-watching during class had paid off and given her a great sense of time which had helped her realize the pattern that was happening. Three seconds the aura was dim and his powers useless followed by half a second of amplified power. The distance between them was too great to be covered in three seconds but if she could dodge his power once she could make it in six. So she began running.

He grinned at her bravery and followed her with her hand waiting for his powers to begin working again. Finally they kicked back up and he fired a gust at her but she knew it was coming and managed to roll out of the way. His eyes widened as he focused again on her. She was too close now, he needed his powers now. But Saten closed the rest of the distance in two seconds and struck him hard in the stomach with the pipe sending him reeling back. This, combined with the pain from the still active Capacity Down, incapacitated him.

* * *

That was when four more guys, big tough and dressed like the three unconscious guys wandered into the alley. Three surrounded the still glowing but incapacitated Roku and began taunting him. "Not so big now are you?" she heard one call out. The remaining guy walked up to her. "Thanks," he said, "for protecting our guys. We level zeros gotta stick together you know. That guy didn't hurt you too much did he?" he asked noticing her skinned arm and the few cuts that she had sustained.

"No not really… you aren't going to hurt him are you?" she asked, and noticed that one of the others was taking out a switchblade.

"They're probably gonna cut him up, maybe kill him. He was willing to do the same after all. There's nothing I can do to stop them really. I would if I cou-," he began. Then an explosion rang out as the van with the stereos was utterly destroyed.

With the capacity down destroyed and its incapacitating noise silenced Roku's eyes flared up and his power blew off his attackers. He stood up, anger clear in his eyes, and turned to Saten. "YOU!" he screamed, "I'LL K-"he began when suddenly the glow surrounding him seemed to spark and surge. The swirling winds around him died as the glow ebbed away and finally he fell onto the ground, unconscious.

By this time the ones who he had blown off him had recovered and were advancing on him once again, even more pissed off. The man near her said, "That explosion was my cue," and ripped the pipe from her hands. He covered the distance between himself and the other thugs in two steps and with three hits knocked them out. He then turned back to Saten whose eyes widened as she began walking backwards slowly.

"Do me a favor," he said politely, "call Anti-Skill and stay here. Make sure everyone's safe until they come and then make sure they're all arrested. I have to go back to Ritoku but if Zangyaku's men," he said pointing at the others clarifying who he meant by that, "are left unattended and one of them wakes up I'm sure they certainly won't hesitate to kill a defenseless ESPer and I doubt the ESPer would hesitate to kill them," He explained and tossed her the pipe, "use that to defend yourself if you want." He said and left.

* * *

Saten was confused but she did understand that he was right, that if someone woke up without her here it would result in someone's death. So she called Anti-Skill and waited until they arrived.

To her surprise when they did come she was arrested as well. She tried to explain but the agent said, "I don't have time to listen to your explanation. What I saw was seven unconscious people and you standing in the middle of them holding a weapon. You can explain what really went on at the station but I'm taking you in, all of you."

So she was driven to Anti-Skill headquarters. She saw that the place was both surprisingly full and surprisingly empty. There weren't many officers compared to the one or two other times she had been here (though this was the first time she had been in here in handcuffs) but there were several criminals, especially in the infirmary where her scratches were disinfected and bandaged. Every bed was filled with people with various levels of injuries, many of whom were unconscious. Everyone in it was wearing handcuffs.

After stopping by the infirmary she went to an interrogation room where she was asked the details of what had happened by an automatic recorder as she was told there was no agent available to do one in person. She went over the details as best she could and was told that the case would be reviewed at a later date but that she would need to be held in the holding cell until she was excused and released. She was told that could take anywhere between an hour and a day depending on if and when someone came to claim responsibility for her.

She tried to protest but the recording shut off and she was shuttled to the holding cell which was even more full than the infirmary. She was guided inside and left. She was a bit in shock and simply sat on one of the benches which was free.

She was in a kind of daze which she remained in until she was approached by a guy, "well well looky here. A little girly. What you in here for little girl? Did you steal a cookie from mommy's cookie jar or something? You seem mighty weak to be a criminal." He grinned as he taunted her in a thick crude voice.

"I-I-," she stammered, still confused.

"Hey! Back off of her!" a familiar voice yelled. They both turned and saw Misaka standing there.

"And what are you gonna do if I don't little rich girl?" he continued, completely unafraid. That is he was unafraid until a lightning bolt missed his head by inches. He quickly retreated.

Misaka walked up and sat next to Saten," hey… you're in here too eh? You ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said, relieved and confused to see such a familiar face, "same to you."

"I'm ok," she said. There was a band-aid on her cheek and she seemed a little scratched up but other than that she looked fine, if a little worn out, "what happened with you?"

Saten gave her the short version and then asked, "You?"

"Well… you see…" Misaka began her story.

* * *

Author's Note: Sorry for the "Endless Eight"-esque repeated parts. But at least these are in a different perspective. I swear it isn't laziness, just trying to get you a more complete picture of the day's events.

I shoved a lot of references into this one. I hope it didn't ruin your immersion in the story but I felt like I could get away with it this once. By the way, the right answer to their discussion about who would be the best narrator for life is actually Morgan Freeman, but I didn't think that either of them would have heard about him and my opinion is not necessarily my character's opinion, in fact it very rarely is.

Realistically the protagonists of TAMNI and TAKNR should be arrested far more than they are. I mean they do break so many laws and even if they don't break them themselves they are the ones who are still standing after the fight is over which means that they look like the ones who caused all of the damage, even the damage that they didn't cause.

* * *

Coming soon: Biting iron and cold steel, summer's harsh storm.

* * *

Dedications: This one is dedicated again to another guest and once again to EtherealFox since he is one of my most reliable reviewers. You guest guys should create an account so I know your names and can thank you properly for your reviews. Also so I can respond to them. I try to always respond to reviews, the longer and more in depth the more likely I am to respond but I can't respond to guest reviews…


	46. Toaru Puraido no Dekigoto

Toaru Puraido no Dekigoto

A Certain Matter of Pride

* * *

Unlike Saten and Uiharu Misaka was not awoken by an alarm clock. As usual she was woken up by Kuroko. Unlike usual it was not with a kiss but with a hug, though it was a stretch to call the bone crushing grip Kuroko held her in a hug rather than a pretty successful attempt to suffocate her. What was more unusual was that Kuroko was still clearly asleep while it was going on. Her face seemed troubled, even more so than it had been for the past several weeks.

Today's nightmare seemed to be worse than usual.

With her ability to speak greatly hindered by the suffocating grip and a limited ability to move Misaka resorted to desperate measures. She contorted herself as much as she could and managed to put her face just in front of Kuroko's. Then she kissed her; a knight in Gekota pajamas attempting to awaken a princess with a perverted streak a mile long.

Her efforts were soon rewarded as the crushing hug eased and her kiss was cautiously but still enthusiastically returned. Misaka pulled away but Kuroko pulled her back and buried her head in the crook of Misaka's shoulder. She tightened her hug for a moment as she began to kiss Misaka's neck with a surprising amount of passion for this early in the day (usually she was pretty restrained until nighttime came around).

Misaka tried to get away as she asked, "Are you ok Kuroko?" Her behavior was strange… was it a result of the nightmare maybe?

"I love you," was her response. Then she looked up at Misaka her eyes full of something that Misaka couldn't decipher, "do you love me?"

Misaka blushed at the suddenness of the inquiry but she quickly responded with an "of course." She didn't know where the question came from but it seemed like the teleporter needed an answer to it.

"Then I'm fine… as long as you love me I'll be fine so keep loving me please."

"Of course… but I can love you from more than a couple inches away so please get off of me," Misaka said.

Kuroko smiled and let her go, standing up and beginning to go towards the closet before turning back to the bed and sitting back down on it next to the now likewise seated electro-master. She took Misaka's hands in her own and spoke again, "Onee-sama… last night… what happened in the shower… did that really happen?"

Misaka's blush instantly deepened as her eyes widened and she instantly stammered out, "wh-wh-WHAT?!"

There was a look of doubt in Kuroko's eyes as she clarified, "last night were you and I in the shower naked together? Did you really let me wash your back and hair and everything else?"

"Wh-why are you asking," Misaka asked. Kuroko's actions this morning were so abnormal and it was so confusing. Why was she doing this? Why was she asking about something so embarrassing? Misaka didn't even want to think about it again. The dreams that night had been bad enough.

Kuroko sighed, "I… I have trouble sometimes… distinguishing between dreams and nightmares and reality… I trust your love is real I really do but… it all feels like a dream, a cruel dream that teases me with it vividness only to be yanked away," she looked up at Misaka, "tell me this isn't a dream."

The words sounded familiar. "You asked me that before… right after the Queen incident. My love wasn't a dream then and it still isn't. What happened was embarrassing but it was reality. Don't expect it to be a regular occurrence though ok." She reached up and patted her head and though her words were strict her hand was gentle.

"When you say that it makes me unimaginably happy," Kuroko said sounding half relieved with hope in her voice, "so if it is unimaginable it must be real right?"

"Right… I guess," Misaka said. The logic was a little bit shaky but it seemed to comfort Kuroko and she quickly adopted a more normal demeanor. Unfortunately the demeanor she chose was a mischievous one.

"Though I was even happier when you were naked…" the teleporter grinned.

Misaka's hand stopped it's patting and rested on her roommate's head. Still she decided to be forgiving. "Think about your next sentence very VERY carefully," she said. her voice was honey sweet but the sparks that were emitted from her forehead and the fire in her eyes belied the true potential danger that Kuroko was in. But if anyone knew that danger it would be her girlfriend, who had had more volts run through her than a power line.

This made Misaka even more surprised when Kuroko, in a show of either extreme bravery or extreme stupidity, chose to say, "your breasts have grown since we first met. Though they'd probably grow even faster if you let me massage them."

It took a second to process this impudence in the face of her threat but when she did her eyes narrowed and she pumped the other girl full of electricity. She left the burned paralyzed shell on the bed and got dressed and ready in the bathroom. She took her time, trying to recover from her already extremely stressful morning.

* * *

Something was clearly wrong, the older girl knew that. For someone who had just yesterday talked about how she wanted to distance herself from Misaka so she didn't become too clingy. She wondered if it had something to do with what had gone on last night at the Honogun headquarters. She could try asking but she knew how hard it was to extract information from her girlfriend. She would always find a way to move the conversation onwards from topics she didn't want to talk about. The only way that Misaka could think to get anything from her was offering her something in return, like she had done with the story about her martial arts. But was it worth it?

Misaka decided to wait and see if Kuroko would tell her naturally. Then she finished getting dressed and went back out. A plate of hot food was at her place at the table and Kuroko, fully changed and ready, was in the kitchen preparing a bento for Misaka as usual.

Misaka sat down and was about to being eating. As she sat she was watching Kuroko's back as she prepared her food with "care and love" as she put it. Unlike usual there were two boxes which made Misaka happy. She had been worried that Kuroko hadn't been eating recently even though she assured her she had. Then, as Kuroko was cutting up some vegetables to put in the boxes, her back seemed to tense up then relax. Misaka heard the knife come down but didn't hear it hit the cutting board. "huh?" Kuroko said to herself a second later, sounding confused.

Misaka was already halfway there, when she arrived the next second she saw that Kuroko had cut her finger with the knife. The cut girl was just standing there, seeming a little unsure of what to do as blood began to pour out of the deep wound. Immediately Misaka took her hand and stuck the finger in her mouth.

The bitter, unpleasant, coppery taste of blood filled her mouth as it poured in surprising quantities from the severe cut. Misaka cringed but nevertheless she rolled her tongue over the wound like she had heard to do when one's finger was cut. She saw Kuroko look at her than down at her mouth. Then the teleporter blushed. She didn't say a thing just turned away, back to the cutting board. She put the now bloodstained knife to the side and grabbed a paper towel and dabbed away the few drops of blood that had fallen on the wooden surface.

"I'm sorry," the younger girl finally spoke, "I guess I got distracted. I'm going to get this disinfected and put a band-aid on ok?" she said and before Misaka could let her go she teleported both of them into the bathroom and began digging around the medicine drawer with her free hand as Misaka continued sucking on her finger, wearing a blush equaling Kuroko's.

The teleporter got out the bottle of hydrogen peroxide and the band-aids. She took her finger out of Misaka's mouth and poured the disinfectant on it without even a wince. Then she put on the band-aid and put them back in the drawer. The electro-master swallowed the last mouthful of blood and said, "that had better be some tasty food." She needed to get the coppery taste out of her mouth. But rather than going back to the dining room she interposed herself between Kuroko and the door despite knowing that she hardly presented a realistic barrier to the teleporter. "You don't get distracted and you don't have accidents," she said to the younger girl, speaking from experience, "what is going on? What is with you this morning?"

Kuroko looked away, "I'm just a little spacey is all… I didn't get a very good night's sleep yesterday."

"Is that all?" she asked and Kuroko nodded, though she could clearly tell she was lying. She wouldn't be able to get the truth from her as long as she wanted to hide it however so she just gave up. They went back to the kitchen and Misaka ate while Kuroko packed up what she had so far and wrapped the boxes in handkerchiefs and gave one to Misaka. "would you like to go and see Uiharu at Judgment this morning? I haven't seen her in a while so I thought I'd stop in."

"I'm sure she'll like that. Sure I'll go," Misaka decided and the two teleported to the offices only to see that they were empty. Looking at the clock Misaka saw that it would still be several minutes before the beginning of Uiharu's shift. She also saw that Konori seemed to be out on patrol already, so the two of them were alone in the office.

* * *

They sat on the couch in a somewhat awkward silence. After a couple of minutes Misaka decided to break it and turned to the younger girl to find something to talk about. But the words died in her throat as she saw that same vacant stare that she had had back in the dorm. The wooden armrest of the sofa began cracking under her white knuckled grip as she completely zoned out. Then suddenly she was back to normal.

Misaka was just about to ask what was going on when Kuroko turned to her and pushed her down onto the couch, kissing her with what felt like… desperation. Misaka pushed the other girl off with a blush, "Kuroko what is going on? What are you doing. We're in public… Uiharu and Saten could walk in any second." She said.

But the anger in Misaka's tone hardly warded Kuroko off. Instead she slid her hand under the electro-master and began rubbing her back in that one spot, immediately dispelling that anger. "We can hear the door downstairs open from here and I'll stop before we get caught," she pleaded, with sorrow clear in her voice. Another kiss silenced any further protests from Misaka.

How long this continued Misaka didn't know. Her head was full of thoughts and the distractions of Kuroko's soft lips and gentle touch hardly helped her concentration. What was with her behavior, and why was she zoning out? The latter could be explained by anemia or something from an improper diet but the former was harder to explain. While the behavior wouldn't look unusual to a casual observer it was clearly different. The restraint that she had been developing the past several weeks had completely shattered and she seemed to act as if... as if she would be leaving soon and this was the last day that she would see her. Then there was her statement this morning. The perversion she showed despite Misaka being ready and willing to shock her.

Were her threats not scary any more? Was she getting weaker? Perhaps she was letting Kuroko get away with too much.

It was times like this that Misaka felt even more like the teleporter's mother rather than her girlfriend. Or maybe it was more like... an older sister... Maybe Kuroko's nickname for her was getting to her.

Despite the fact that it was first intended as an insulting nickname by her back in the days when they clashed it had developed into more of an identity than Misaka liked to admit.

People had always looked up to her as both an Oujo-sama and as a prodigy. Back before she was a level five she was always forced by her friends and classmates and others to be the mature one of the group, the one to break up conflicts and help out the others, the role of a big sister. When the others had started abandoning her as her powers grew and grew the maturity she had developed quickly backfired and turned into her current childlike nature. Though she still tried to hide this side of her from the public.

Kuroko was the first one to know about it and, though she teased her about it, she was the one who talk Misaka that it was ok to be childish. Kuroko had taught her that other peoples opinions on her taste didn't matter and if they complained a couple thousands volts would usually stop that complaining right away, like it did to the teleporter.

But Kuroko's influence hadn't been responsible for just Misaka's violence, it was also responsible for bringing back, if only somewhat, that big sister like attitude. Her room mate was harder to deal with than anyone else she had ever met so learning how to live with her allowed her to make friends with Saten and Uiharu.

Those two were so much easier to handle. They didn't cause problems for her, they didn't do perverted things to her, they listened and liked her without expecting anything, they accepted her and her quirks. And they didn't have enough quirks of their own to make them tough to deal with. Misaka was glad to have met them.

Suddenly Misaka realized that Kuroko had disappeared. She sat up to see the girl sitting in her chair. She had a great big smile on her face that made the electro-master want to punch her to wipe it off. Misaka sat up and was about to speak when she was again interrupted, this time by the door opening and closing as Uiharu walked in. Misaka found it hard to look her in the eye for some reason rhyming with duroko.

* * *

"Late as ever eh Uiharu?" Kuroko said, half-scolding but half-affectionate.

"Not everyone can teleport Kuroko, and she lives far away," Misaka defended her, trying to find something to yell at Kuroko for given that she couldn't just blurt out the real reason for her ire.

"What are you two doing here?" the flower headed girl asked.

"Well I decided to check up on how my friend was doing without me. I know you're fully capable so I haven't been worrying too much recently but a visit every now and then can't hurt," the teleporter said sincerely.

Misaka turned to look at Uiharu and was slightly surprised to see that she was alone, "Saten isn't with you today?" she questioned.

The other girl turned and looked around, seemingly as surprised as Misaka was. Then she heard a door open and close and Saten walked up the stairs. "The cake shop down the street was offering free samples of their newest flavor," she said, explaining her absence.

"Oh, really?" Uiharu asked, excited. One of the drawbacks of teleportation as a mode of locomotion is that "the scenic route" didn't exist so this was news to Misaka who wondered if she should go and try it out.

"Well they were," Saten said casually, "I had the last one."

"Oh, really?" Uiharu asked again, this time clearly disheartened, "were they go- "she was about to continue when Saten moved forward towards her.

"Just kidding," Saten said after a couple of seconds, "I made sure to get a sample for you too," she assured the shorter girl "sorry for just shoving it in but the look on your face was priceless when you realized. And I only made a little mess," the long haired girl said as she moved to wipe off a little frosting from the corner of Uiharu's mouth and put it in her own mouth. "Tasty aren't they?"

Suddenly Kuroko appeared on Misaka's lap with a small piece of cake. "Onee-sama, say ahhh," the teleporter commanded.

"Stop! Kuroko GET OFF!" she yelled, her voice filled with obvious anger and a less obvious embarrassed plea. Kuroko seemed to hear it though and apparently she only partially ignored it because the next second she found herself on the roof. The cake was popped in her mouth followed by the other girl's tongue. It took a second to realize what was going on but the moment she did she shocked the teleporter as harshly as possible without risking severe injury. Then she stood up and wiped off her mouth, swallowing the cake. "We are going to have a long talk later on. Until then I want you to stay away from me..." she seethed as she descended the steps and reentered the main office without another word. It wasn't until another half a minute passed that the other girl teleported in, right near the sink, and began immediately running her tongue under cold water. It had just received a severe electrical burn after all.

Still Kuroko was dedicated to being as antagonistic to her as possible today it seemed and she said, "totally worth it," in Russian, a language the two of them knew but their friends did not.

"Shut up," Misaka responded, again in Russian, and fired another lightning bolt at the girl, this one more controlled. It hit her square in the back, scorching the vest of her uniform and causing a sudden muscle spasm that sent the teleporter's head into the metal faucet hard.

The audible thud that echoed throughout the room and the blood that Misaka saw trickling down her forehead where it had hit the faucet caused Misaka to worry. "Onee-sama, you'll damage my uniform," the teleporter whined, disregarding the lightning's effects on her as she righted herself and wiped off the trickle of blood that the impact had caused. But this was usual for the teleporter who always laughed off her injuries, even when they were clearly severe.

"Are you ok Kuroko?" she asked.

"I'm fine," she said then she walked over to Uiharu, "I should probably get going, I have a lot of training to do. I'll be back on the beat on Monday. You'll be fine on your own until then," she spoke the last part as more of a statement than a question, utter confidence in her voice.

"Yep," she nodded with a smile, "I'll see you Monday. Have a nice time until then. Train hard." With that Kuroko left. Konori returned shortly after that and said that it was Uiharu's turn for patrol.

"And you two, try not to distract her this time. Her patrols are taking twice the time that they should," she scolded the others who decided to just head off. As they left Misaka stopped by the cake shop and got a sample.

For some reason it didn't taste as sweet as it had before...

* * *

As she was walking with Saten the two began to talk. "I was talking with Uiharu this morning. We were talking about Personal Realities and that practice where you picture your idyllic world," Saten said.

"Oh? What kind of thing did you imagine?" Misaka asked. That particular practice helped most with people who developed their powers later on. Misaka had had her powers since she had gone through the power curriculum program. What she pictured wasn't necessarily her idyllic world, rather what she imagined was a large field stretching for miles all around. It was dark and stormy with gusting winds, torrential rains, and lightning flashing across the sky. To most people it would be quite unpleasant but she loved it... not necessarily the stormy weather but the feeling of control that she had over it. With the tiniest motion she could halt the wind and rain and make lightning strike where she wished.

Once when Misaka was a small child still living at home she had been playing around with her mother's keys and accidentally stuck them into an electrical outlet. The resulting shock had made her terrified of electricity for years. But when she became an electro-master all that fear vanished. She now had complete control of something that had once terrified her and that was an amazing feeling to have.

"Well I kinda had problems with it. My perfect day is just hanging out with my friends. I'm ok with this world you know?"

"That's an optimistic outlook," Misaka said with a smile, "I suppose this world is pretty good… though a little too like an action movie at times."

"I was thinking it was more like a romantic comedy…" she said, "either way I suppose it's better than a drama or," she shuddered, "a soap opera. Those things are so cheesy."

"Or a documentary… think how boring that would be."

"I think it would actually be kind of exciting, having a narrator… maybe Jun Fukuyama? It would be cool having the Code Geass guy narrating our lives wouldn't it?"

"Eh, I don't think I'd like a guy doing it… I think Rie Kugimiya would be better."

Saten laughed in response, "I should've expected that you'd choose the Queen of Tsunderes."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Misaka asked embarrassed, though her embarrassment sounded to all the world like anger. It was a problem that might lead some to mistake her for a tsundere. But she wondered if that was a bad thing. Weren't tsunderes usually the more popular characters in a show? "what's wrong with being a tsundere anyway?" she asked to see if Saten could clarify.

"Well," Saten began, "I have nothing against them personally. They have their reasons and they can actually be kind of endearing, but you have to feel sorry for Saito and Hayate. As durable as they are it can't be easy to deal with a tsundere's rage, especially if they're particularly violent."

A variable montage of images flashed across Misaka's mind, each showing her attacking Kuroko out of embarrassment. She felt some guilt as she realized that she did probably hurt the teleporter a little more than was strictly necessary. Still... "but they choose it… well maybe not those two but Ryujji certainly chose to stay even if Taiga was violent."

"You're right… I guess they're just masochists who deserve anything they get," Saten conceded. Though she didn't mean it she had to admit that Kuroko might actually be a little bit of a masochist… but that was beside the point.

"I'm not saying that," Misaka argued, trying to find some way to state her position, "I'm just saying that it's as much them as Rie's characters. They don't have to stay and they don't have to do the things that make them get hurt."

"True. But you still have to ask if they deserve as much as they get. What they do isn't that bad. They're just trying to show affection."

"They do it wrong. It's only for the perverted things, I don't punish Kuroko for hugs and kisses as long as we're not in public." She said, frustrated as she was reminded of all these mornings interactions. A second past before Misaka realized what she had said. A deep blush overtook her cheeks and she ran off. She didn't know why she did so but her legs just began moving, carrying her away from her friend.

* * *

She ran for a while then just began walking. She wasn't sure where she was going so she just wandered around. She had nothing to do really. She stopped and thought about stopping by the park to work out some anger but that plan was interrupted when several large stupid-looking lunkheads approached her.

"Hey there little girly, is it safe for someone like you to be wandering out here alone? Do you want me to help you find your mommy?" one of them asked with a smirk.

She looked at him for a second then sighed and fried him and seven of his nine buddies within the blink of an eye, leaving their charred smoking carcasses on the ground of the alley, proud of herself for not causing a blackout this time. Then she lowered her gaze at the two remaining men. Her gaze was thick with a single thought "I dare you".

Much to her surprise however the others didn't react with anger, in fact they seemed more relieved than anything else. One of them even smiled at her, "thanks," he said, "a little early considering Ritoku's signal hasn't gone off yet but I'm not one to raise a fuss."

This confused Misaka but he didn't seem to want to cause her any trouble so she continued walking on glad to have worked out some of her anger on some people who probably deserved it. So she continued walking on for a while longer.

* * *

Suddenly a chill ran down Misaka's spine. Instinct took over for a second and she ducked, narrowly avoiding what looked to be a massive sword. She rolled forward, turning around at the same time to get a view of her attacker.

Standing about 10 meters in front of her was a tall lanky teenage boy with short spiky grey hair. His body was surrounded by a weird greyish blue glow. He was standing next to what probably used to be a stoplight. Now however it was twisted into a giant hinged blade, almost like it had been made of clay.

"ooo very nice. It's good to see that the railgun is more than just talk. You can call me Tetsu, I am the most powerful metal manipulator in the city and I intend to prove it. I think beating you would be sufficient for that don't you? Beating the magnetic master herself?"

"I'd like to see you try," was Misaka's response as she gathered iron sand in her hand.

"There is no try, only will, and I will beat you," he grinned as the blade pointed at her again. Then the tip of it shot forward, a spear as thick as a tree travelling quickly directly at her.

Deflecting it was an easy matter. She twisted blade near the hinge with magnetism sending the spear through a car and into a nearby building instead of into her. Then she sent her iron sand whip-sword directly towards Tetsu.

But he was ready and sent a sheaf of iron from the base of the stoplight coiling around him to protect him from the sand. Now that it was in contact with metal he was touching he gathered the iron sand up into once spot and had the coiled sheaf of iron twist and throw it back like a boulder from a catapult.

The apparent pointlessness of this action was not lost on Misaka who looked to the side just in time to see the almost disregarded tip of the iron spear adjusting itself and forming a mace with the metal from the car it had skewered as well as an iron girder from the building. The giant mace began to make a move to smash her.

Looking behind her for something to use as a shield her eyes fell upon a fire escape which was attached to the building behind her. She ripped the iron structure from the brick side of the building and interposed it between herself and the heavy metal mace stopping it in its tracks. Misaka then ripped off one of the ladders from it and flung it towards Tetsu who only just managed to block it with another nearby car.

"You're better than I thought," he admitted, "but not good enough!" the car absorbed the ladder forming it into another pointed spear as the mace began to absorb the rest of the fire escape fashioning it into large metal spikes on the mace's surface.

'I can't beat him by using metal alone. He absorbs any metal that comes in contact with something he's controlling,' Misaka realized and saw that the other building behind her was made of reinforced concrete. She smiled and gathered all her power to rip the wall from the building and smashed it against the mace, pinning it to the wall. She magnetized the loosened chucks from the wall and sent them sailing into the car, smashing it to pieces and crumpling the flimsy iron of the ladder-spear.

"Had enough?" she asked ready to finish this fight.

"I told you... you can't beat me," he sighed, as if exasperated with a small child. Then he used some of the last remaining iron in the pole, forming it into a rod and sending it into the ground. A second passed and nothing happened... then a massive rumbling came from the road beneath Misaka's feet. Her eyes widened as she managed to dodge just in time to avoid the pipes and wires which were ripping themselves out of the ground. The pipes rammed themselves into the concrete wall, smashing it to pieces and freeing the massive mace.

"damnit" Misaka cursed as she tried to defend or counter or attack. She ripped every piece of metal in the surrounding area up, from fire hydrants to trash cans, to use as weapons but everything was absorbed and Misaka soon found all her paths of escape cut off by a spiked wall that Tetsu had been wrapping around her.

Misaka's mind worked furiously to find a way out. There must be something else she could use around here that couldn't be absorbed... maybe she could magnetically repulse the walls if they got too close... She racked her brain for something, anything. She would not let herself lose this contest.

Tetsu grinned as he saw the trapped level 5, "I've won. This battle is over," he announced.

'Battle...' the electromaster repeated the word in her head. It was then it dawned on Misaka. This wasn't a contest, there was no losing. This was a battle, if she lost she would die. All throughout the fight she hadn't truly taken it seriously. This person had come up to her and challenged her as a manipulator of metal so she had fought as such to defend her pride and honor as a level five. But that was when it had been a contest, when pride and honor were the only things on the line. This was a battle and a battle had no rules... and no limits.

Misaka pointed a finger at the gloating glowing Tetsu and sent a lightning bolt directly into his chest. He convulsed and spasmed and finally fell over, the glow ebbing away with his consciousness.

* * *

Despite her victory Misaka frowned. She had been so caught up in proving that she was better than he was at his power that she hadn't taken him out like that at the very beginning like she knew she could have.

She knew it was a problem of hers, her pride. Ever since she had become a level five she had never once fought with her full power unless her friends were in immediate danger. She always held back and the reason wasn't just because her power was dangerous if used in its full capacity, it was more because fights were boring otherwise.

Though she wouldn't admit it Misaka loved fights. They made her heart beat fast and her blood boil with excitement. The feeling was indescribable and the rush of adrenaline almost incomparable. If all her fights were over as quickly as the one against the lunkheads from earlier things would get so boring. So she held back far more than necessary in hopes of dragging fights on for as long as possible and extending that feeling.

So far that hadn't really affected her that much. She was powerful enough that even holding back she was more than a match for almost anyone. She had only lost two fights in her entire life and one of them didn't count because it was against that annoying spikey haired kid and his cheating arm.

The other was actually against Kuroko, long before she was her room mate and girlfriend, back during their second meeting. During their first meeting when Kuroko had tried to arrest her, she had zapped her for her troubles, though it was a considerably more gentle zap than the ones she delivered nowadays. However this earned her the teleporter's ire and during the second meeting She tried to arrest Misaka again. Misaka had not had time to deal with her at the time so she had tried to zap her again only for her to disappear. It was Misaka's first glimpse of her powers, her second came the next second when she was teleported up to her neck into the ground.

Other than those two she had won every fight she had been in and only a few she had ever had could be called "close". The one against Kihara and her robot and the one against the AIM burst. This was, unfortunately, one of those close calls. This Tetsu person was powerful... unnaturally powerful. She wondered what that glow that surrounded him had been. Was it somehow linked?

* * *

As she was lost in thought she heard Anti-Skill sirens blaring. She ignored them until she noticed them getting closer. Before she knew it a van had arrived at her location. The agent got out and looked around at the carnage the fight had wrought. She sighed and said, "I don't have time for this," then she looked at Misaka and told her, "you're under arrest for... this" she gestured to the surrounding region and pointed at the unconscious Tetsu.

"What?!" the electro-master protested, surprised, "he attacked me first. I was just defending myself."

"If that's true then it can be verified later," she said, "but right now you're standing amidst a massive amount of damaged property and the only other person is unconscious from what is clearly a lightning bolt making you a very likely suspect. If you're innocent then it can be dealt with peacefully at the station but if you try and refuse then even if you are innocent of the vandalism and assault you will be guilty of resisting arrest."

Despite her anger at the unfairness of the situation she realized that the agent was right and that trying to resist now would probably be a bad idea. So she went peacefully to the station where her inuries were treated in the infirmary and she was questioned about what had happened by an automatic recorder (apparently they were very short staffed at the moment because of some gang violence that was going on).

* * *

However an agent did come to talk to her near the end. He sat down in the room. He was tall with a shaved head and a large shiny badge. He smiled as he introduced himself, "hello. I'm Marshall, chief of Anti-Skill. Given today's events it seems I am the only one available to talk to you." He sounded happy as he mentioned "today's events".

"I just defended myself, nothing else. I don't know why I was arrested for that, I never have been before."

"That would be what I wanted to talk with you about. You know of your arrangment with Anti-Skill don't you?"

Misaka's eyebrows furrowed, "arrangment? I wasn't aware I had a particular 'arrangement'."

"Ah! Well... simply put someone has taken responsibility for you. The community service penalty for any crimes you commit are instead shouldered by this person as well as all fines and property damage which you or your parents would otherwise be forced to pay. It is an uncommon practice but it sounded interesting when it was proposed to me so I allowed it. Anyway, you will need to remain in the holding cell until this person comes for you so try not to hurt anyone ok?"

Misaka was confused. She had never heard about this deal before but it did explain how she hadn't been arrested in several months despite what some might consider less than legal activity. Still that left one question, "who is it?"

"A young girl by the name of Shirai Kuroko. Normally she would be considered too young but she does have a level two emancipation so she is considered an adult in most circumstances. Her work in Judgment is considered community service so she has managed to keep up with the surprising amount of that which you would otherwise have accrued but the money is another matter. I wonder if she has enough to pay for this." he smiled, "anyway, follow me to the holding cell," Marshall said as he stood up.

* * *

"That makes three out of six successful battle tests of 'David's Blessing'. The remaining three will be completed shortly. The endurance tests have shown the average duration to be an hour of power usage after activation, far less if it is used to a greater degree. If our theory is correct then the 'Cloak of Elijah' which we had those Honogun fellows test for us should increase the duration indefinitely," Vyers reported the results of the day's tests, "As for the last thing we need, the Horns of Jericho. It seems that Kuroko has finally gathered them all and has even secured the seventh from her friend. As the Queen mentioned it is difficult to control her but she says she has managed to subtly influence her enough to ensure that the horns are not destroyed, but rather gathered together."

"Speaking of the Horns... the third battle test seems particularly interesting. The interruption of those Skillout gave us a way to test out the Horn of Jericho's effects on the blessed ESPers before its intended delivery. It seems that, with the 7 stage cycle of interference and amplification, this almost definitively proves the cyclical resonance theory of AIM fields," said Lammington as he got the results of this particular test back. The experimental opportunity had been unexpected but when they had gotten word of Skillout's plan it was a simple matter to move their lab rat to someplace that he would be affected, "Wielhelm would be happy to hear his theory proven right, if he was still alive."

"A hard working lab assistant for the foremost researcher of AIM fields just looking for a bit of recognition, his greatest contribution a theory not even proven until he had already died…" Vyers agreed with sympathy, "Still, cyclical resonance always did make more sense than Douglass's theory, that's why the boss based his 'Call' around it. AIM fields clearly originate from the brainwaves, not the motor neurons. The idea that they were a movement at all makes no sense and yet people accepted it so readily. And the result is that AIM fields are called by such a silly name."

"They can hardly reassign the Nobel prize though and this experiment was secret so even though it has been proven he will still be missing the credit," Lammington reminded his friend who sighed in response.

"I suppose you are right. Still, we know he was right, and a lot of research is based around his theory even if it isn't the generally accepted one. Once AIM field detectors get suitably advanced I'm sure he will receive his due respect," Vyers admitted then he sighed and got onto the more unpleasant business, "by the way, the Queen has requested a physical enhancement, saying that she'd prefer to 'crush Misaka with her own hands'."

Lammington smiled, "this actually provides a good opportunity. You know those robotic limbs used by prisoners for physical labor... give her one of those. It's programmed to be able to shut the wearer down upon command so we can knock her out in a moment if she gets out of hand."

Vyers sighed, "I wait for the day when she gets out of our hands..."

"Soon friend... soon."

* * *

Author's Note: I have read one or two angry reviews stating how I am underestimating Misaka. I disagree with this. In fact I think I have expanded her powers in a realistic way (except for the reinforced concrete wall in this chapter... but that was perhaps a little bit of indulgence of fantasy on my part) that makes her potentially more powerful. In the show she has even more moments of weakness and those, along with their rescues, are less realistic. The fact is that getting saved by a teleporter makes sense, it is someone who can appear literally out of nowhere and get you out of a harmful situation instantly.

I have given her enemies with realistic countermeasures for her powers that still leave a way to defeat them (unlike Accelerator who is semi-invincible) which have managed to put Misaka on her toes without utterly overpowering her. But as I show in this chapter they are still easy to take down. If Misaka was willing to kill then any enemy except ultra powerful ones would be killed in three seconds by her railgun.

It's infinitely easier to write about a main character from a side character's perspective than to write about a side character from a main character's perspective. I wanted to continue the trend of the last two chapters but that little caveat along with the fact that I've already done a lot of introspection with Misaka made it more difficult, so I did more of a focus on action.

* * *

Coming soon: Frozen hearts and icy glares, a battle as cold as winter.


	47. Toaru Tsumi no Kurikaesu

Toaru Tsumi no Kurikaesu

A Certain Repeat of Offences

* * *

That night Kuroko dreamed of darkness and honey and thorns. It was an all too familiar dream that she knew could only mean one thing…

The Queen was back.

However this time there was one difference and that difference was enough to give her strength. This time Kuro was with her in the darkness. The black silhouette of her oldest friend was hard to distinguish among the darkness but the white chains which dangled from the executioners axe and bound her otherwise jet black form told Kuroko that she was still there.

_There is nothing to worry about Shiro, I am here for you and this time I have power. I will not allow her to take over your mind._

She has done it once already though. She is a level five and I am just a level four. Onee-sama is immune but I am not.

_Do not despair. You are strong. The voice was deafening before but it is weaker this time because you are stronger now than before. You will not lose._

The voice may be weak but the hate it is inducing is strong. I am not like you, I can feel and my feelings can be manipulated, whether by the people I care about or the Queen's power. But I will be strong, my love cannot be overpowered by any amount of hate.

At these words of confidence she felt the darkness lift as she was brought to the real world by her Onee-sama's gentle lips upon her own.

* * *

She was a little surprised but happy at the same time. Still… the feelings from the dream lingered even as she returned the kiss. When the older girl began to pull away she panicked a little bit and adjusted her grip to pull her Onee-sama closer to her. She channeled her hate and anger into passion and began her assault on her girlfriend's neck, trying to release the pent up emotion.

Misaka tried to get away as she asked, "Are you ok Kuroko?"

"I love you," was her response. She looked up at Misaka with some hate still lingering in her gaze, "do you love me?"

As expected Misaka blushed but she said, "of course."

"Then I'm fine… as long as you love me I'll be fine so keep loving me please." Without her love Kuroko wasn't sure what she would do, what she could do.

"Of course… but I can love you from more than a couple inches away so please get off of me," Misaka said.

Kuroko smiled and got up to change, then she stopped as what happened last night flashed through her head. It was so nice, so pleasant, a dream come true.

Dream… had it really happened? It seemed doubtful so she turned back to the bed and sat down, taking her Onee-sama's hand both to relay the seriousness and for comfort. "Onee-sama… last night… what happened in the shower… did that really happen?" she asked.

"wh-wh-WHAT?!"

That was hardly enough of a reaction to either confirm or deny so Kuroko clarified, more doubt seeping into her gaze, ""last night were you and I in the shower naked together? Did you really let me wash your back and hair and everything else?"

"Wh-why are you asking," Misaka asked.

Kuroko sighed, she hoped her girlfriend wouldn't consider her too weird for saying what she was about to say, "I… I have trouble sometimes… distinguishing between dreams and nightmares and reality… I trust your love is real I really do but… it all feels like a dream, a cruel dream that teases me with it vividness only to be yanked away," she looked up at Misaka, "tell me this isn't a dream."

"You asked me that before… right after the Queen incident. My love wasn't a dream then and it still isn't. What happened was embarrassing but it was reality. Don't expect it to be a regular occurrence though ok." She reached up and patted her head and though her words were strict her hand was gentle.

Kuroko was happy to hear this but it also frightened her a bit. If what she knew would happen soon happened then all of this would be yanked away…"When you say that it makes me unimaginably happy," 'and all that happiness will be gone', "so if it is unimaginable it must be real right?"

"Right…I guess," the electro-master said.

And if the Queen really did dominate her once again how would Misaka react… she had been so reluctant to shock her recently. Would she hesitate again? Would she refuse to hurt her even if Kuroko was forced to hurt Misaka? Would it be Kuroko's fault that she was hurt? Would she kill the only person she ever loved?

'Perhaps it would be better if I got her used to the idea now,' she thought so she put on her best mischievous grin and said, "Though I was even happier when you were naked…"

"Think about your next sentence very, VERY carefully," the electro-master said. She saw the anger in her eyes and the perfect willingness to hurt her… that was good. Maybe things would actually go well after all.

Still it wouldn't work unless she was actually shocked. So she braced herself and said "your breasts have grown since we first met," that much was actually true, they were about 8.5 millimeters larger, "Though they'd probably grow even faster if you let me massage them."

As expected she was harshly shocked before Misaka stormed off.

* * *

Kuroko recovered quickly though and got about her own morning routine. Quickly getting changed and making breakfast for Misaka. Then she began preparing her Onee-sama's lunch. After a second of thought she prepared a second box. She would be visiting Jericho today and she thought she might appreciate it. She would also pick up something for Birdy on the way, probably something sweet or maybe a nice curry bun.

Thinking of visiting friends she realized she had not visited Uiharu yet. She decided to bring it up with Misaka after her breakfast to see if she would go with her.

'It will be nice to s-,' Kuroko began to think then suddenly a blackness passed over her eyes and mind. A singular overpowering urge passed through her, the urge to hurt Misaka, to chuck the knife at the girl who had just come out of the bathroom and sat at the table. It was too strong to resist forever, even holding it in for half a second was straining her. So she took another course of action.

She withdrew. She hid herself in the hiding place in her mind where Kuro had once stayed when she wasn't necessary. All non-automatic bodily functions shut down for the second or two that she remained in there as the powerful rush of hate and anger washed over her.

When she came out again she said a simple confused, "huh?" out of reflex. The action had been disorienting and she was feeling pain for some reason. She looked down to her finger to see that she had plunged the knife into it. By the depth of the wound she must have hit it pretty hard… had her knuckles not been long since replaced with more durable artificial ones it would probably have cut her finger off.

She was still a little confused and wondered what she should do when that question was answered for her by Misaka who stuck her wounded finger in her mouth despite the fact that such an action was hardly sanitary. But the thoughts of how unhygienic it was were quickly replaced by the sensation of the ordeal. The soft, warm, wet pressure eased the pain.

Yet the whole thing was slightly awkward and the fact that she was making her Onee-sama do such a thing to her was a little embarrassing. She blushed as she put aside the knife and began to clean up the blood that had spilled on the cutting board. It took her a while to get up the motivation to speak again.

"I'm sorry," the younger girl finally spoke, "I guess I got distracted. I'm going to get this disinfected and put a band-aid on ok?" she said teleported both of them into the bathroom. Then she began digging around the medicine drawer with her free hand as Misaka continued sucking on her finger, wearing a blush equaling Kuroko's.

She treated the wound and put a band-aid as Misaka said, "that had better be some tasty food." Then the electro-master moved to block the door. "You don't get distracted and you don't have accidents," she said to the younger girl, "what is going on? What is with you this morning?"

Kuroko looked away, "I'm just a little spacey is all… I didn't get a very good night's sleep yesterday." It was a half-truth but she knew the whole truth would disturb her Onee-sama too much.

"Is that all," the older girl asked and Kuroko nodded in a blatant lie.

They went back to the kitchen and Misaka began eating as Kuroko finished up the boxed lunch, making sure not to pick up the knife again. As she finished working and brought over the electro-master's lunch she brought up what she had been thinking before the "blackout". "Would you like to go and see Uiharu at Judgment this morning? I haven't seen her in a while so I thought I'd stop in."

"I'm sure she'll like that. Sure I'll go," Misaka decided and the two teleported to the offices. As expected it would still be several minutes before the beginning of Uiharu's shift and Konori was out on patrol. They were alone together.

* * *

They sat on the couch and a few minutes passed without anything of interest happening. Suddenly the same wave of hate and anger as before washed over her, even stronger this time. Again she withdrew into herself riding out the main wave of emotions, but some remained. Again she tried to funnel them into passion and pushed her Onee-sama down onto the couch kissing her.

Misaka tried to push off with a blush, "Kuroko what is going on? What are you doing. We're in public… Uiharu and Saten could walk in any second." She said.

Any other time she would have agreed but right now she needed to work off this emotion or else she might do something else to Misaka, something that both of the probably would enjoy even less. So she moved her hand to rub the spot on her Onee-sama's back that worked to control her temper and said,"We can hear the door downstairs open from here and I'll stop before we get caught," she pleaded, with sorrow clear in her voice. Then she continued to kiss her as deeply and passionately as possible, trying desperately to work out that pent up emotion. It worked quite well and by the end it had turned into a considerable amount of happiness.

She only stopped once the hair on the back of her neck bristled warning her to the incoming presence of someone else. She teleported off quickly and into her chair and waited for Uiharu to arrive which happened shortly.

"Late as ever eh Uiharu?" Kuroko said, half-scolding but half-affectionate.

"Not everyone can teleport Kuroko, and she lives far away," Misaka defended her though the teleporter knew she was just finding some excuse to yell at her.

"What are you two doing here?" the flower headed girl asked.

"Well I decided to check up on how my friend was doing without me. I know you're fully capable so I haven't been worrying too much recently but a visit every now and then can't hurt," the teleporter said sincerely.

Behind her Misaka asked, "Saten isn't with you today?" sounding surprised.

The other girl turned and looked around, seemingly as surprised as Misaka was. Then she heard a door open and close and Saten walked up the stairs. "The cake shop down the street was offering free samples of their newest flavor," she said, explaining her absence.

"Oh, really?" Uiharu asked, excited.

"Well they were," Saten said casually, "I had the last one."

"Oh, really?" Uiharu asked again, this time clearly disheartened, "were they go- "she was about to continue when Saten moved forward towards her.

"Just kidding," Saten said after a couple of seconds, "I made sure to get a sample for you too," she assured the shorter girl "sorry for just shoving it in but the look on your face was priceless when you realized. And I only made a little mess," the long haired girl said as she moved to wipe off a little frosting from the corner of Uiharu's mouth and put it in her own mouth. "Tasty aren't they?"

While this was going on Kuroko teleported to the shop deciding she should pick one up for her Onee-sama. Then she teleported back right onto her lap and said, "Onee-sama, say ahh."

"Stop! Kuroko GET OFF!" she yelled, her voice filled with obvious anger and a less obvious embarrassed plea. Given what she had just done she decided it would be best to at least get some privacy for this part. So she teleported them to the roof and slipped the cake into her mouth along with her tongue so they could share the taste.

Her efforts were almost immediately and completely expectedly met with an immense amount of electricity. Unfortunately Kuroko had not foreseen the fact that her tongue made an excellent conductor. It was much like touching a battery with one's tongue only several hundred times worse. And unlike the rest of her body it was not a place she was accustomed to electrocuting making it even worse. She felt the muscles convulse terribly and felt the flesh scorch as she rolled off the other girl.

The only reason her tongue wasn't completely burned off and instead only suffered a first degree burn was that the shock wasn't as strong as it had been before and it was distributed throughout her whole body.

"We are going to have a long talk later on. Until then I want you to stay away from me..." she heard Misaka say as she walked away. It took her a while to recover enough to stand up and when she did she immediately teleported down to the sink to run her burnt tongue under water in an attempt to soothe the pain. She knew with medication she'd be healed by tomorrow but that certainly didn't make it any less painful now.

Still she couldn't help but speak her mind as she said "totally worth it," in Russian, a language the two of them knew but their friends did not.

"Shut up," Misaka responded, again in Russian, and fired another lightning bolt at the girl, this one more controlled. It hit her square in the back, scorching the vest of her uniform and causing a sudden muscle spasm that sent the teleporter's head into the metal faucet hard.

It was not the pain she was worried about though, nor the injuries. She had had more pain and injury in her life than most soldiers suffered through an entire war. However her uniform being damaged was another matter. Uniforms for such a prestigious school as Tokiwadai weren't cheap and she had already gone through two or three this month. "Onee-sama, you'll damage my uniform," she whined. Then she wiped off the blood of her forehead. Though she hadn't lost that much blood she decided to take an extra iron tablet today just in case.

"Are you ok Kuroko?" Misaka asked.

"I'm fine," she said then she walked over to Uiharu, "I should probably get going, I have a lot of training to do. I'll be back on the beat on Monday. You'll be fine on your own until then," she spoke the last part as more of a statement than a question, utter confidence in her voice.

"Yep," she nodded with a smile, "I'll see you Monday. Have a nice time until then. Train hard." With that Kuroko left.

* * *

She teleported to a bakery to pick up Birdy's curry bun then went to Itora's residence. She arrived just in time to see Birdy hurrying out the door, a package in her arms, though she did stop and talk to Kuroko, thanking her for the snack and catching up a bit before she hurried off to her delivery.

When that was over she went inside. Itora was nowhere to be seen but another member of the family (by the resemblance she guessed he was actually part of Itora's family) guided her to her white haired friend.

When she arrived she was slightly surprised to see Jericho working on a table that was quite similar to her one at home. She was happy to see Kuroko and told her that she had been taken on as an inventor by Mind Over Matter. Since she was now working for a company instead of freelance she had greater access to resources and was paid a higher and more consistent wage. Not only that but she was even making friends with Birdy. Kuroko was happy for her but at the same time she felt a little empty. When they were kids she had been the one to take care of Jericho, the only one. But now it seemed that Jericho was beginning to become able to take care of herself.

After a short talk / catch up session she told Jericho that she had gathered all the horns. Jericho looked very happy at that and then she took something out of her pocket. It was a small box.

"This is the first thing I ever invented," Jericho said, "it's a music box. I wanted to give it to you to thank you for all your help. Not just now but in the past. Open it."

Kuroko did so and the haunting melody of her lullaby spilled out of the small box. She let it play out then she looked at Jericho. She stepped forward and gave the girl a hug and the other girl sang in her beautiful singing voice that only Kuroko had ever heard, "O shiro tsuki shiro tsuki ikanaide kudasai."

Then she said one more thing, this time in a quiet whisper, "the data for the seventh horn is hidden in a flash drive in the middle, just twist and you should be able to retrieve it. There are similar flash drives in the suit cases with the data. Keep the box but please… if you would, deliver it and the rest of the ones you've gathered to the right people."

"I will," she said, "I'll make sure to visit often too."

Jericho smiled back, "thank you Shiro, thank you for everything."

With a few more parting words she left and picked up the horn she had retrieved last night. Then she went to her secret place where the remaining five horns lay.

* * *

Despite what she had said to her friends she was wondering whether to hand it over or not. She had spent so much time retrieving it from people who would abuse it. Would she just be handing it over to more people like that? She had decided at the beginning to destroy them… but that too sounded like a poor alternative. She would be betraying a promise she made to a friend.

She decided that she would research the company that had ordered them to be built first. Until then she copied the data from all of them onto two CD's. One of which she would keep down here and the other would be kept on her person. For a second she wondered about the latter part of that course of action. Why would she want to do something as illogical as keep it on her person?

Still she decided that it couldn't hurt and slipped the completed disc into her pocket. Then she teleported upwards and took a deep breath and thought about what she should do next. She first decided to send a text to Riko telling him the name of the company and asking him to do a bit of research on it, saying she would pay him tomorrow when she came to pick up the results of his findings.

Then she noticed as a man rounded the corner of the alley. He was a large man built like a tank with black leather jacket and pants and short hair in a pseudo-buzz cut In his hands he held a folder. "Are you the one they call the scourge?" he asked.

"Yes… who are you and what do you want?" she said cautiously, her hands resting on the needle bands on her thighs.

"My name is Komaba Ritoku**. **Tell me… what do you know about the leader of the gang Skill Out?" he asked.

"The current leader of Skill Out is Zangyaku Banko a notoriously ruthless man whose personality fits his name. Why do you ask?"

"Because I have some information for you regarding him and his gang. Something big is about to go down and I don't think Anti-Skill can handle it. You however have proven yourself able to handle things that even they cannot. Not only that but I believe you have had prior experience with what you'll be dealing with. From what I heard you dealt with something similar when you were fighting one particular faction of Skillout known as Big Spider."

A foreboding feeling rose within Kuroko's gut. "Go on..." she said, motioning with her hand.

"From what I hear some of Skill Out recently kidnapped the creator of a device known simply as a Horn of Jericho which functions similarly to the Capacity Down you faced with Big Spider. They attempted to get her to replicate one. While this was a failure as someone, you actually I believe, managed to rescue her before she was able to build another one, the sound of the Horn which they captured and were using as a basis for replication was recorded. This recording was uploaded onto several different trucks which had been previously outfitted with large stereos specifically for Capacity Down. A field test shows it functions at the same level as the original with an even larger effective range. Now Zangyaku is preparing to utilize it in a massive attack against all of this city's ESPers."

"Where did you hear this from," Kuroko asked, surprised at his depth of knowledge.

"My friend is in Skillout and he told me. He didn't want to go to anyone himself but I cannot stand by while so many innocents are hurt," he explained.

Kuroko of course didn't trust him, and in this case it wasn't just paranoia saying that. But she nodded regardless. She teleported a tracker into his thigh (a painless and unnoticeable action to him) and said, "So what do you want me to do about it?"

He held out the file in his hand, "here are the locations of all the vans. They have trackers installed in them so if you pick up the tracker from the main base where most of the vans are still at you can find the ones which have been deployed already. What you do is up to you." Kuroko walked up and took the folder cautiously. And the man turned and left with these parting words, "you are a good person. You protect others regardless of who they are. You will do the right thing."

Even if it was a trap her suit, which she had with her, and her power would allow her to avoid springing it, so she decided that it would be worth checking out at least. She teleported back to her secret spot and changed, retrieving a few things as well while she was there. Then she teleported off to the location of the main base where most of the targets currently were.

* * *

Ritoku left the alley and joined his two friends, Hamazura Shiage and Hattori Hanzou, who were waiting for him a short distance away.

"How'd it go?" Shiage asked

"She seemed cautious so she might end up missing the opportunity out of that suspicion. I don't think she will though. Her sense of justice is strong. If all ESPers were like her there wouldn't even be a need for Skillout," Ritoku informed with a sigh.

"Is she capable enough to do it though?" Shiage continued skeptically.

"She managed to defeat so many of the Skill Out members in this region within two days and far more in the past. That was what allowed us to sow the seeds for this little coup in the first place remember? First-hand accounts put her combat prowess at demonic levels. Even adjusting for exaggeration she is still quite talented." In the aftermath of the two days when the scourge had gone on her rampage the members of Skill Out started questioning Zangyaku's ability to protect them as well as his control over the area. He had lost the trust between himself and his subordinates a long time, so that control and ability to protect them was all he had. When that broke down it had been easy to get a large group of loyal and combat trained people on his side and with his two friends he was ready to overthrow him at any time.

Now provided a great opportunity both because the attack would spread Zangyaku's forces thin and allow even his few men to take them out with ease. Not only that but what he had said was true. He could not allow something like this to happen, he could not allow so many innocents to get hurt.

"That wasn't what I meant though. She's still an ESPer, won't she be affected by the Capacity Down trucks like everyone else?" Shiage clarified.

"She's dealt with them before. I'm sure she's smart enough to keep her distance," Ritoku said.

"Even if she doesn't keep her distance," Hattori spoke up for the first time, "I told you what I saw at the parking garage. For some reason she doesn't seem to be affected by the Horns."

"You know you have told us that part but you never did tell us why you didn't attack her…" Shiage queried.

'Because our clans are allies at the moment,' Hanzou though, but he kept this thought to himself and instead said, "Because I saw no reason to. I was unaware at the time that she was the scourge so it just seemed like two girls in the wrong place at the wrong time. None of us are so heartless as to mercilessly attack someone in those situations are we?"

"Course not, that's why we're taking over, to protect the ones who can't protect themselves."

"He who thinks himself above corruption is the quickest to be tainted by it," Hattori said. Once before he had been offered leadership of his clan and he had refused. He would always refuse leadership because of this very reason. He was quick to think himself righteous and knew that that characteristic would make him a poor leader of men and a horrible abuser of power. Ritoku was a man who hated the idea of leadership as well but his reasoning was different. He cared about his subordinates and being a leader would make him personally responsible for the fates of so many, a burden that he was unwilling to bear without incentive. This was what made him the perfect candidate for leadership.

Shiage rolled his eyes, "yeah yeah Buddha, any more Zen crap before we get on to business?"

"Quick to anger slow to think," he snarked at his friend in response.

"Here's a thought for you," Shiage seethed in reply, "I think you're a ba-" He was quickly silenced by a look from Ritoku.

Once he was assured his friends were silent he spoke, "Everything else is in place. Assuming the scourge decides to help I've told the men to begin the attack on the mark. They've been told not to kill so I'm predicting a small mortality rate. Most of them are outnumbered but the ones who are are skilled combatants and should be competent enough to deal with the others, plus they've got the element of surprise. When they're done they've been instructed to call Anti-Skill and report the others then meet back up with us at the secondary base where we're heading to take out Zangyaku."

"What happens if she does more than simply disable the trucks? What if she goes after Zangyaku on her own?" Hanzou asked. The look in the girls eyes last time he had seen her had been that of a fearsome hunter who would never stop until her target had been wiped from the earth and Ritoku was targeting her at Skill Out. It could be that Ritoku had dug their graves with that decision.

"He is at the secondary base and she only knows where the main base is. She won't be able to find him if she tries," Ritoku assured, "now… shall we get on with it?" He asked his friends who nodded in response.

* * *

Author's Note: The complete picture is almost completed, next chapter will be the action part of this as well as the aftermath but for now I decided to split the two chapters up, both so I can get this out as soon as possible but also because it would be a huge number of words otherwise and that can get really tedious to read. I try to average 4-5k a chapter, though my previous chapters have been skewing that a bit with their 6-7k word counts.

I hope this isn't too big a violation of canon, but I don't think that Ritoku would be the type to create Skillout. It is more likely that he took over leadership of it. Since this isn't covered in the novels to the best of my knowledge I decided to write one up on my own explanations of the incident.

Also, in response to one guest comment I received, this is set just before the sister arc (and therefore the fight with accelerator) in the timeline but after the Level Upper and Poltergeist arcs as well as after the Index and Deep Blood arcs. Though there are only like 2 days between those in the real timeline those two days are actually 2 months in my canon.


	48. Toaru Shidō-sha no Tsūkoku

Toaru Shidō-sha no Tsūkoku

A Certain Ultimatum of Leadership

* * *

Within a minute Kuroko had arrived at the main base. It was a large shipping building, more than half of which was taken up by a massive garage. Unsurprisingly this is where she went first, teleporting up to the rafters and keeping her suit on stealth mode. Looking down to the main part of the freight garage she saw the twenty or so vans lined up in rows as well as a mass of Skill Out around them. A few quick scans with her helmet showed that beneath the sides were massive stereo systems. It seemed like these were her targets.

Though the vans were all roughly the same size and build they looked considerably different. Some looked like converted ambulances or news vans others more like the van they had come across before. Many were decorated with custom images though most were the cliché skull and crossbones or flame patterns. The most interesting ones featured a picture of an eight legged horse with an eye patched man on top fighting a massive wolf and on the other side a chariot pulled by two goats held a hammer wielding man against a huge serpent.

The teleporter quickly weighed her options, deciding what she should do. A direct assault was out of the question, for as good as she was, she was outnumbered by what looked like 200 gangsters to her one single judgment agent. Even with her armor protecting her she would soon die from the sheer amount of blunt trauma.

So she got out the box she had picked up from her secret spot. They were a series of small, remote-controlled explosives that she had picked up in her last paranoia-induced trip to the black market. A place Kuroko was surprised she was still allowed into considering her reputation, which actually seemed to be more appreciated than not. Apparently the gun and drug smugglers she had apprehended had actually been rivals of some people in the black market system who actually appreciated it.

Kuroko then got out the file she received from Ritoku. She leafed through it until she arrived at the blueprints of the van and scanned the diagram for a safe place to put the explosive to disable the speakers without killing anyone inside. She decided on what she felt to be a relatively good spot, right next to the speaker's power supply. The power supply was a bank of batteries which was not explosive and was shielded in enough metal that the explosion would be contained and the acid from the destroyed batteries wouldn't kill anyone. With that decided she teleported the explosives into each of the vans one by one.

Now the question was when she should detonate them. If she did it now then no ESPers would get hurt but then again it also meant that none of the Skill Out thugs would go to prison for their crime. But if she detonated them later on then some people might get affected and hurt by them, not only that but even if she let them run loose she had no guarantee that they would be arrested. With that in might the obvious choice was the first option. She took the detonator out of her pocket and was about to press it.

* * *

Then in a whisper so quiet as to be almost silent, a voice spoke to her, **Let them suffer… let them pay…** Kuroko did not hear it but she put the detonator away. 'It is my job to enforce the law. If I let them run wild then they will hurt more people in the long run than if I help get them arrested now. I am sure they will be arrested if I detonate them in the field,' she told herself to justify her action.

_Perhaps if we could introduce something to increase those chances, _Kuro said, unaffected by the voice's subtle manipulations. But she still felt like getting them arrested was more important than other people's safety so she did not try to talk her out of it, but rather make it more efficient, _We know that if they activate the capacity down then there are people nearby, ESPers who they are using it against. Therefore if we plant listening devices on the trucks then wait for them to go off we can be relatively sure that there will be someone nearby to defeat them and get them arrested._

"But then they'll affect me. If Capacity Down retains its debilitating properties even through secondary mediums then the sound that would warn me would also shut me down," Kuroko reasoned after shutting off her microphone to prevent herself from being heard.

_For a moment perhaps but you can simply reach up and shut down your headset without me having to take over. Then you simply detonate. If the plan in the folder is accurate the other trucks won't even leave for another half hour, plenty of time to destroy the others so you can be safe while you do it._

Kuroko nodded. It seemed like a good plan. So she teleported a listening device onto each one and then searched for the tracker Ritoku talked about. She found it in the shipping room guarded by a couple people. Defeating them would betray her presence and she couldn't take the tracker without them noticing. So instead she wirelessly synced it up to her headset which layered it on the HUD over its own city map.

* * *

With that done she located her first target and teleported onto the roof, unaware of the whisper that was playing in her head. **No need for fear, no need for caution. Make them pay with your own hands. You don't need all that fancy equipment.** Kuroko took off her helmet. The suit wouldn't be nearly as effective outdoors and it would probably just make her over confident. But she kept it for its value as armor as well as the sunglasses and earpiece for purposes of detection. She put on her sweatpants and sweatshirt over it to cover the black bodysuit. Then she tied the ninja insignia to her arm as well as one of her spare Judgment armbands, completing the outfit of the scourge, the embodiment of fear itself.

She smiled as she teleported to the first van which was on standby quite a distance away. Ten people gathered around it. **No need for fear, no need for caution. Make them pay with your own hands. You don't need all that fancy equipment. **Kuroko readied the explosive and her needles, still too cautious to attack them head on.

**What are you? A helpless princess or a strong knight? If you aren't weak than fight. Prove to those who think you are beneath them that you are strong. Fight and show your strength.**

Kuroko put away the needles and the explosive. She didn't need such technology and fancy maneuvers to take these people down. She was stronger than they were. She would teleport down and show them that. She took a moment to consider her strategy, a moment that she would have spent disabling the people and the van otherwise.

Unbeknownst to her she wasn't the only one whose mind was penetrated by whispers. Down below messages of hate and anger played in the heads of the Skill Outs as the Queen weaved her web of honey and thorns indiscriminately in the area surrounding her targets, hoping to make their lives as miserable as possible in the intervening time. Luckily for Misaka, who was the mind-controller's other target, she was wandering through the alleys at the moment, deliberately avoiding people who would otherwise have been affected by the Queen's circle of influence.

The already impatient Skill Out members decided to just turn on Capacity Down, despite not having received the orders to yet.

If Kuroko had ignored the voice and taken them out via her methods she would have already been gone, but the delay that she herself had chosen to create caused her to receive the full blast of the horn. Unlike the ones she had planted the listening devices on there was no way to turn this off. Therefore, reluctantly, Kuro stepped up again to put things right.

She sighed as she took the ribbons out of her hair and reassessed the situation. The ten people would be a problem but another problem was the fact that the explosives she had wouldn't work from the outside. There were too many stereos on each truck to try and disable them individually and the explosions weren't big enough to cause enough internal damage to shut them down. Looking down she saw a way to remedy this though. One of the people below her carried a grenade launcher and a large sack of what she guessed to be extra ammo.

'_Good enough,_' she decided, activating one of her armor's features as took a running jump at the grenade launcher holding thug. She grabbed onto a stoplight near her target and swung around, using the rotational momentum the motion built to kick him hard and knock him unconscious. She used her remaining momentum to launch herself into a second one standing nearby. The third one of the group fell likewise unconscious as he was hit by the upper part of the stoplight that the gloves previously activated micro-blades had cut off when she swung from it.

This got the attention of the others, arranged into two more groups of three as well as the driver. Kuro turned around to deal with the group behind her but first she knew she should disable the truck. Chasing it through the city wouldn't be the best of things. So she activated another blade, a larger one near the wrist, and slashed the tire before sheathing the blade with a single fluid motion.

With that done she stepped forward and picked up the fallen stoplight bar and swung it at the group of three who were still frozen in fear. It hit them all and sent them onto their backs with the heavy metal bar pinning them down.

She turned around to see two of the other group of three down with the third one standing over them, hands raised in a sign of surrender or peace. The driver at this point began to speed away but the popped tire made him end up careening into the side of a nearby building. It began to back up and try to speed away but this had allowed Kuroko enough time to pick up the grenade launcher from the unconscious thug and point it at the side of the van.

She pulled the trigger. The recoil of the gun was considerable and because Shiro (and by extension Kuro herself) had never had training the accuracy was off. But accuracy was not as important with a gun like this and the shot hit. When it did the results were splendid as the explosion peeled open the side of the van like a grape and instantly shut down the noise without killing the driver.

With that done she pointed the launcher at the last Skill Out member, the one with his hands raised who had knocked out the others. "_Explain,"_ She said simply the threat clear enough without her mentioning it.

"I'm one of Ritoku's men. I'm against Zangyaku's leadership. We were told that by Ritoku you were going to be going around and destroying the trucks and when they were destroyed we were told to defeat the members still loyal to Zangyaku then call Anti-Skill to get them to come and arrest them," he responded, looking a little less confident than he had before now that he was staring down the barrel of a gun.

Still the answer was sufficient to Kuro and she nodded. "_Then get on with it._" She said before picking up the sack of extra ammo and running towards the wall of a building and up its face before jumping and grabbing onto the ledge of the roof opposite. She pulled herself up then began to make her way through the city to her next target. Even without teleportation Shiro and Kuro were masters of getting around both quickly and unnoticed due to their training regimen. The weight of the sack and grenade launcher was even less than what she usually lugged around during training as well, though they were considerably more awkward.

She soon arrived at the next van. However this one was currently in motion. She followed it to a small park. Nearby the wind was gusty, the clouds in the sky twisting around miniature tornadoes which picked up and threw anything nearby. However the wind soon died down as the Capacity Down activated. At this point she was still a short distance away but she quickly caught up reaching the location maybe half a minute later. Then she took aim at the van and fired, destroying it.

* * *

After that she continued hunting down the vans one by one until the remaining three were destroyed. Then she turned on the tracker she had teleported into Ritoku. She was glad she had. It seemed he was a member of Skill Out after all, just using her for his own purposes. Kuro would hunt him down for this.

She travelled to his location, detonating the explosives in the other trucks as she went as soon as she heard them activate. By the time she reached the building that the tracker signal was coming from all twenty were destroyed.

She noticed by the entrance were several unconscious thugs. A similar sight met her throughout the building's corridors as she tracked down the signal. Finally she arrived at a metal door that seemed to have been welded shut recently, the acetylene torch and welders mask used for the deed were still nearby in fact. Though the welding job was sloppy it functioned well enough as evidenced by the sound of someone attempting and failing to open the door from the room on the other side. The signal was coming from that room meaning that Ritoku was probably in there.

This was validated the next second as his voice came from the room, echoing around the room through the door and to Kuro's ears. "You have nowhere to run," the voice said, calm but with a noticeable hint of exhaustion and pain, "We've beaten your thugs. Your leadership has collapsed, your time is up." Kuro flipped on the T-ray filter on her helmet to get a better view of what was going on.

"YOU!" Another voice yelled, this voice came from the man right behind the door, "You would dare betray me? Is this your repayment for all my kindness to you? Is this how you treat someone who saved your life from those ESPers?"

There was a sigh from Ritoku who stood with two other people at the far end of the room amongst thirty or so unconscious bodies. "You know for the longest time I thought I owed you everything for that. You did save my life that night a year and a half ago. After that I looked up to you, I was as loyal as they came and I worked hard for you for months. But then you asked me to attack a defenseless little girl just because her power could be a nuisance for us later on. That day you showed me who you really were. That day way back then when you beat up those ESPers who were attacking me, you never intended to save me did you? You just wanted to attack some ESPers, saving my life was a side effect to you wasn't it? You don't care for anyone's life but your own. Your goal was never to help the plight of the level 0's. You never had a power so you just decided that no one else should either. You decided to kill anyone with more power than you so you could stand above them all. I could never be part of something like that, part of an organization that's only goal is to hurt not protect. So I decided to stage a little coup, overthrow your leadership and replace it with my own, reform Skill Out into a group dedicated to helping and protecting level zeros rather than hurting and killing ESPers. Defeating you is… just a side effect."

"Don't think I'm defeated yet," Zangyaku said as he pulled the gun that he had out of its holster and pointed it at the three, "I might not have an ability, I might not have a gift, but that does not mean I do not have power. This is a Smart Weapon that I obtained a while ago from an Anti-Skill agent just before he was hunted down and killed by his own partner. It never misses and it always kills. That's the problem with you three, you're no different from those arrogant ESPers. You put too much stock in one thing, in one ability, and you think it grants you immunity. You three think you are so good at combat but I don't think a punch can save you from this no matter how good you are at swinging. You and all ESPers are weak because you rely on certain things to save you and when those things fail you have nothing else. That is why you will lose."

"_I couldn't agree more,_" Kuro said as she drove her gloved hands through the metal of the door, her reinforced fingers piercing it as if it was paper. She grabbed hold of it and ripped it from the threshold, the shoddy welding giving way under her strength, as well as her shoulders which dislocated themselves as she threw the heavy metal door behind her. She then stepped forward and grabbed Zangyaku by the throat as he turned around to see who had spoken and what was causing the noise.

"_Arrogance always leads to defeat,"_ She said as she contorted Zangyaku's arm that held the gun and pointed the barrel at his own shoulder. Then she pulled the trigger sending a bullet through his shoulder damaging the brachial plexus nerves and paralyzing his arm causing him to drop the gun into Kuro's waiting hand as she threw him across the room where the impact with the wall knocked him out.

Kuro kept the gun pointed at the Ritoku who still stood at the opposite side of the room as she pulled out the grenade launcher and pointed that at the blond haired one standing next to him. She recognized the third as the one who had been there near the parking garage where she had rescued Jericho. She spoke to him, "_You spared me before so I will show you the same kindness. If you do not attempt to attack me you are free to go regardless," _predictably he didn't move an inch as she addressed the other two, "_As for you two, you have a minute to explain to me why you chose to deceive me before I begin shooting out your joints._"

"I thought you said she didn't know where this place was?" the blond one addressed Ritoku.

"_An odd thing to do,_" Kuro remarked, "_Complaining about being saved while someone is pointing a gun at you and a time limit is in place._"

"I deceived you simply because you would not have trusted me otherwise. What you stopped needed to be stopped and having suspicions getting in the way would not have helped anyone," Ritoku explained, as calm as ever.

"_Acceptable response,_" Kuro acknowledged but did not lower the guns, "_Now take your time as you try and explain why I shouldn't arrest you right now for all your crimes?_"

"I'd like to see you try," the blond one said aggressively as he lowered his stance.

Kuro lowered the grenade launcher and fired at his leg, scoring a direct hit and sending him to the floor. However she had deactivated the grenade before she shot and set its distance down to decrease the power. Though she didn't train with guns she had studied the workings of many different types in order to learn how to best disable them. "_You would not like to see me try in earnest," _she said to him, her meaning getting across clearly.

Only Ritoku's hand kept Hattori from cutting down the girl who had tried to hurt his friend, regardless of the fact that she was part of an allied clan. "here is a reason for you," Ritoku spoke, "Skill Out will exist with or without my leadership. The weak and oppressed will always feel need to rise against their oppressors. Leaders may rise and fall but that feeling won't change. What will change is the purpose of the group. Zangyaku was dedicated to crushing ESPers, I have someone I want to protect and that is what I will fight for, that is what Skill Out will be about."

Kuro looked at him, then down at the gun she held in her hands. She understood what he meant. Protection was Kuro's entire purpose in life and a desire to protect was the one thing she respected. Still she could not let him become an enemy. So she decided to give him a choice, _"This gun is not meant for killing,"_ she began, _"That is completely against its purpose. It was built to neutralize hostiles without killing them. It has a failsafe that prevents it from being used at a lethal level when something with the consistency of flesh is detected. To kill that needs to be turned off, it is the switch right on the end of the barrel[1]."_ She tossed the gun to Ritoku and lowered the grenade launcher, straightening up as she popped her shoulders back into place_, "I am the scourge of crime, your greatest enemy. This is the only chance that you will ever get to kill me. But if what you say is true then prove it to me now. Turn the switch to non-lethal and break it so that that gun will never have the capacity to kill again. What will it be?"_ She said, though there was no choice. Her armor would protect her if he tried to fire it and she would knock him and his subordinates out the next second. But if what he said was true then it would be better to have him lead Skill Out than someone else.

Without hesitation he turned the switch off the moment he caught the gun and ripped it out, "Whether you say you are my enemy or not I would not kill you. You have saved my life today and the life of my friends. You may have hunted down and arrested the members of my gang but you do not persecute innocents. You protect the weak, ESPer or not," he shook his head, "we are not enemies."

"_Then I shall spare you from arrest today and allow you to take over Skill Out on one condition. If there ever comes a day when Skill Out becomes unnecessary, when there is a better way to protect the weak from the strong, then you will immediately disband the group even if you must do so by force_."

"When that day comes I will do so happily," Ritoku agreed, not a hint of deception in his eyes.

"_Then I will go for now. I will visit periodically to ensure you are still upholding your ideals of protection and if you violate that, if you hurt or kill anyone, I will arrest you in a second_," Kuro said as she turned and left. You handled that quite well actually, as much as I distrust them what he said was the truth.

"Until that time then scourge," he called after her.

* * *

After that Kuro began walking home. She had gotten perhaps half a mile before a phone call came. She picked up her cell and answered, making sure to put the proper emotion intonation in her voice so that it would sound exactly like Shiro's, "_Hello?_"

"Hello, this is Shirai Kuroko correct? I'm Marshall, chief of Anti-Skill and I am calling you to inform you that we currently have Misaka Mikoto in custody. As per our agreement she is currently your ward and as such responsibility for the damages incurred and crimes committed rests with you. Normally she wouldn't be arrested because of that but it has been a busy day and my agents don't have time for all the details. So as it is she needs your signature to be released into your custody."

You will go. You will sign what needs to be signed to get her released. And you will be civil. Shiro ordered in a stern and harsh fashion.

"_I will be there soon_," Kuro said and hung up. "_I was planning on doing the first two. You cannot regain control if I do not. And as for the third_," she said to Shiro, "_I cannot be overly rude without drawing undue attention. But I will maintain my distance and attempt to not be too antagonistic_." She promised as she began her trip there. Given how far away the Anti-Skill station was, she decided to get a cab. So she packed the grenade launcher and spare grenades into her exercise bag along with her helmet then put the steel plate that she kept in the bottom on top of them and finally placed her swimsuit and towel and everything else on top to cover that up as well.

As the cab strolled down the road towards her destination she thought about the state of affairs. The reason that she was the one who called when the electro-master had gone to jail and the reason Misaka could be released into her custody was, as Marshall had said, She was declared as Kuroko's ward.

Guardianship in Academy City was a sometimes confusing matter. When a child was sent to Academy City their parents were effectively relinquishing guardianship of the child. Though they had the ability to reclaim this guardianship the process was lengthy and rare, only expedited in certain cases such as a the child being at high risk of injury or death such as the cases of a few powers which had a high rate of self-mutilation and accidental death.

As guardians the city accepted full responsibility for their actions until they became legally an adult. However there were exceptions to this. Guardianship of a child could be legally shifted onto another person as long as they were legally an adult and resided within Academy City. In this case the child becomes their responsibility. The process wasn't too long or difficult as Academy City preferred in many cases to relinquish responsibility especially for particular, troublesome individuals. After seeing how much trouble the pereskia could get into and the frequency in which she got into it, Shiro had decided to go through the process of declaring the electro-master as her ward.

She sometimes regretted the choice given how quickly the electro-master drained her finances with her rampant amounts of property damage. It was even more annoying considering that most of the money that she was draining were actually **her** finances rather than her parents'. While she did use her parents' money to pay for her more illegal ventures, her more tasteful expenses were mostly paid from her own pocket: such as living expenses and her tuition for Tokiwadai. After all she did not want to rely on them for something which she, by all rights, earned herself. Not only that but it was a way to prove to herself that she was better than those other students who were put through by their parents and didn't need to work a day in their lives to earn something that was so valuable as education.

It had started 3 years ago with a bit of start-up capital from the money her parents put aside so they wouldn't have to deal with her. She had only taken this reluctantly because she knew starting from nothing was impossible for a kid her age. After that she got a little bit of help from the person who had saved her, who she had seen every now and then in the 3 years following that day.

He had told her that it was impossible to open an independent bank account or possess more than 500$ at a time for anyone below the age of 12 unless they had a level one emancipation and impossible for anyone below 15 to have anywhere close to enough money to be able to provide for one's self.

Because Academy City was a city of students there were several laws and restrictions that needed to be in place to control what they could and couldn't do and what age they could do it at. There were four age categories that corresponded to the school that they were in: under 12 or elementary school, 12-15 or middle school, and 15-18 or high school, and finally 18+. Emancipation levels effectively boosted the person's status higher by however many levels. Someone who was 8 with a level one emancipation would be treated as a 12-15 year old and someone like her who was 12-15 with a level two emancipation would be treated as an 18+ in several respects.

This was what allowed her to claim the pereskia as a ward despite being even younger than she was. She had actually thought the city wouldn't accept it, wouldn't want to relinquish their power over a level five, but they had acquiesced quite readily. She supposed that it gave them someone else to punish so they didn't need to do things like fine and jail someone who was practically the perfect representative of ESPers on a citywide and worldwide scale. Having the electro-master as her ward had caused her to become a whipping boy, almost literally, taking the punishments for someone who couldn't otherwise be punished.

When she had achieved legal adulthood she had begun to accumulate funds with some sage advice from that man. He had told her to go into investing, since that was the best way to passively earn money, and given her a lot of advice on how to do it, including surprisingly detailed tables and graphs. In the next few years she would review her finances whenever she was in the hospital, meaning every few days, investing and building her funds to a level where she could support herself and even send herself to a nice school like Tokiwadai. The tables and graphs which she continued to receive from the man were always right, predicting economic data to spookily accurate levels far enough into the future that she still used the last set she had been given a year and a half ago when the man had visited her for the last time though she was now proficient enough to make a few of her own calls as well, including purchasing several shares in the Honogun's corporation after the fall so that when it rapidly gained in price right after that she had managed to garner a huge windfall of cash.

By this time the cab had arrived so she paid and walked into the station immediately seeing a familiar face who looked at her and sighed with exasperation, "I was thinking as much… so this is your work I take it." Judgment agent Aiho said as she processed a group of Skill Out thugs.

"_If you are asking if I was the one to arrest those people then no. I am no longer a member of Judgment and have no power to arrest anyone. I've been training all day,_" She said. Looking at her it would seem to be the truth as well. She was sweaty and tired, even with the trip in the air conditioned car, and wore what looked to be, in fact what were, exercise clothes.

Aiho looked her over. She couldn't see any sign of nervousness or anything to suggest she was lying. She just looked to be tired so she nodded and said, "what are you here for then?"

"_To pick up Misaka Mikoto,_" she said.

"Oh right because you're her… yeah. That's why I can't arrest her right," she recalled, "the secretary should have the release forms. By the way your other friends are here too. Your Judgment colleague, the flower headed one, is in the infirmary recovering from heat stroke, I need to thank her for saving my kohai. The other one was arrested for a similar charge."

Kuro nodded and went to the secretary to fill out the appropriate paperwork, picking up some for Saten as well, posting bail for her and paying the property damage bill caused by Misaka(which would have completely wiped out the profits from her recent windfall and more had Kuro not been willing to use Shiro's parents funds, which Shiro would likely not have done had she been in control). Then she was escorted to the cell by Aiho.

On her way the criminals began gathering at the bars, many of them had been arrested by her and had an understandable grudge. Others just wanted to hurt her for the reputation or sheer hell of it. Kuro slowed her pace, allowing Aiho to get a bit ahead of her, then she spoke quietly to the prisoners gathered around the wall making a ruckus "_a caged dog is easiest to put down,_" she told them with a cold, merciless gaze: the gaze of a demon, the gaze of the scourge.

Instantly the criminals backed up as far away from her as they could. Kuro continued walking.

* * *

Inside the cell in question Saten had just relayed the tale of her own encounter after Misaka had told her about hers, noting the similarities. When she began to talk about the Capacity Down Misaka had responded with concern but she told her that it had been destroyed by an explosion.

"How could a level two be that powerful?" the older girl asked when Saten had finished, "even the Level Upper wouldn't boost power by that much."

"I don't know, and why would Capacity Down only work sometimes… didn't it shut you down completely?"

Misaka nodded, "perhaps we should investigate this." The electro-master began. Then she saw that a group of criminals had gathered near the bars of the cell and seemed to be causing quite a fuss. A few seconds later the crowd disbursed in a panic and Saten and Misaka could see Aiho walking down to the door and trailing several feet behind her was Kuroko. Oddly enough her hair was down rather than tied in ribbons.

Aiho walked to the door and opened it then pointed at Saten and Misaka, gesturing them up as she called their names. They walked towards her, the other prisoners knowing by now to keep their distance.

"You're free to go," she said to Saten, "and your friend with the flowers in her hair is currently in the infirmary. She suffered a bit of heat stroke protecting my kohai but she should be all right. Make sure you take care of her because I still have to thank her for that."

Saten's eyes widened when she heard Uiharu was hurt. She rushed to the infirmary to see her lying in a bed in a separate room. She talked to the nurse and told her she was a friend and she wanted to take her home. The nurse gave her some instructions for care and then released her. Saten brought her home and then followed the instructions.

She blushed as she brought her into the bathroom and began to strip her. It felt so awkward, like she was taking advantage of her friend while she was in this unconscious state. It got even worse when she actually had to lift her up, touching her bare body, and put her into the tub.

Still she braved through it to ensure her friends health. And now Uiharu was awake again and she was outside the bathroom door telling her what had happened. "And that's how it was," she finished.

"That's weird," Uiharu said as she opened the door to leave, "I ha- oof" she began before she fell over her long haired friend who was curled up in a rather hard to detect ball right outside the door. The two girls ended up in a pile on the floor, Saten gazing up into her friends eyes. Though she was still embarrassed she hugged the flower headed girl who was still cold and damp and not too pleasant to hold onto. But the feeling of comfort helped calm her down, "It's been a long day…" Saten said into the girl's wreath, her chin resting on her damp hair. Oddly enough the flowers seemed as immaculate as ever despite the less than perfect condition of the one wearing them.

After only a second of slightly confused hesitation Uiharu returned the hug. Her friends grasp was warm and inviting. They remained like that for a while until Saten finally spoke up, "by the way, you got a medal for heroism. I put it on your wardrobe. It's pretty cool looking. I heard you saved an Anti-Skill agent. Good job. What do you say we go out for ice cream tomorrow after school, my treat, as a congratulations."

"A medal? For heroism? Seriously?" she asked, slightly confused.

"Yeah, the chief gave it to me to give to you when I left the station. He just reached into a bag that he had on him and pulled out a medal. He seems like a pretty cool guy actually."

"Oh…" Uiharu said. She wanted to get up and look but at the same time she didn't want to leave the embrace. Not only that but she still felt very weak. So she decided, in the end, to just stay where she was. "Want to stay over tonight?" she asked, "I'm still not feeling too good and I'd kind of like the company."

"Sure thing," Saten agreed.

* * *

Kuro walked out of the Anti-Skill station, Misaka trailing behind. She seemed different from this morning, she didn't scold her or even speak to her, she didn't cling to her or even go near her at all. Misaka couldn't tell if she was angry or disappointed or what. It bugged her and made her feel uneasy.

"Kuroko," she began as she quickened her pace. But the teleporter simply matched it.

"_What? I'm staying away from you like you asked," _She said, her voice flat but with a cutting edge to it, "_or are you going to yell at me for coming to get you out of that cell? Was that getting too close?"_

Misaka was honestly shocked when she heard these words, they were so… aggressive for the teleporter. She didn't have any anger in her voice but there was an odd type of hostility there that chilled Misaka to the bone. "If that's all that this is about then I'm sorry," she tried to apologize.

"_Oh that is hardly **all **that this is about. How about the hours of community service and hundreds of thousands of yen you just racked up for me to pay off." _Kuro, you promised you wouldn't be overly antagonistic! **Hate, hurt, be** **enraged.** This last part was silent as ever but it was powerful, powerful enough that even Kuro could feel the anger coursing through her veins, though it felt like an out of body experience more than anything, like most of the emotions that Shiro felt.

"I never asked you to do that!" Misaka yelled back, "what the hell is that all about anyway?"

Kuro gave a brief overview of the process she had gone through to get Misaka claimed as her ward. "_After the disregard you showed for the law Shirai knew Shirai had to find a way to keep you out of trouble lest you spend all your time in jail rather than with Shirai," _Kuro said, using third person to distance herself from Shiro's actions.

"And why didn't you see fit to tell me?" She seethed, too annoyed to pay attention to the shift.

"_Shirai didn't want you to feel guilty as the knowledge that someone you treat so poorly is the one who has been looking after you so well and to such a degree would likely cause."_

This of course hit Misaka right in the sore spot and she quickly grew quiet as the guilt hit and hit hard. It was even worse that Kuroko herself was saying it. Normally she never protested her treatment. If even she was doing so then it must mean that Misaka went overboard sometime today. Finally she got out a quiet, "sorry."

"_Don't apologize now. We'll kiss and make up when we get home and then you can say sorry. Until then let's just walk back in silence."_

* * *

Misaka agreed to this and they reached their dorm without exchanging another word. When they finally entered their room Kuroko was quick to pull her down into a kiss though this one lasted only a brief instant before she pulled away.

"I'm sorry," the younger girl said, "For what I said… it was rude. And for not telling you about the whole guardianship thing."

"I'm sorry too. I've been overreacting all day."

"I've been provoking you so they aren't really overreactions."

"They still are… I shouldn't hurt you as much as I do for as little as you do."

"…'as much…' so you aren't actually apologizing for shocking me, just for shocking me too harshly," Kuroko attempted to clarify.

"Exactly. You deserve some shocks just not to the degree that I do them. Hugging and kissing and general 'skinship' in public is an automatic shock though, and it always will be," she said, willing to give in a little but hardly willing to give her free reign.

"what about this morning? What I said…"

"That was perverted and it completely ruined the mood so of course that deserves a shock," she said anger slipping back into her voice as she blushed and covered her chest as she remembered her words from this morning.

"It was the truth though. I was happy when you were naked, but not just because it is an amazingly beautiful sight. It made me feel like you trusted me. After all, putting yourself in such a vulnerable state as nakedness is a strong symbol of trust," she unzipped her sweatshirt as she spoke, having teleported off her armor at the beginning of the conversation, "even someone usually as unabashed as I am would hesitate to show someone my completely bare body, especially now that it is so riddled with scars," she discarded the piece of clothing, leaving her chest covered by just her purple, lacy bra, "But around you it's ok," she said, as she took the increasingly embarrassed electro-master's hand and placed it on her chest, right over her heart. Misaka began to resist but stopped once the skin of her hand touched the younger girl's chest, the edges just barely scratching against the fabric. She felt her heartbeat resonating through her palm and it calmed her down. Almost by instinct now her five fingers splayed, overlapping each of the five scarred lines of flesh, "I completely trust you with every inch of me, I have for a while. But I haven't quite earned the same thing from you yet. You've always been shy about your body and suspicious of me so I didn't think I'd ever get to see you in such a state, certainly not until marriage. The fact that you let me means you trust me enough and that is what makes me so happy."

"And as for the other thing… I was telling the truth about that as well. I am a teleporter and I am extremely good at measuring an object's dimensions as I need to be," Kuroko explained. This was also the truth, though her obsession with the older girl as well as her daily examination of her Onee-sama's body probably helped as well, "they have grown by almost a centimeter since we've met. I think you're beautiful no matter how large they are but since you seem to be self-conscious about the size of them I thought that it'd make you happy to hear that. For the same reason my offer was a genuine one. While milk has no scientific effect on how large a person's bust is (Konori aside), massage stimulates blood flow and is actually scientifically proven to increase the size of one's breasts. I wouldn't do it again without your permission but I wanted to offer at least."

Misaka's brow furrowed. Had she misread Kuroko's intentions that morning? Had the smile been genuine rather than mischievous? Had her words been an innocent conveyance of her feelings rather than her perverted mind weaving its lecherous ideas?

Suddenly Kuroko's other hand rested on the arm of the electro-master that was still crossing over her own chest. It didn't pull or tug or try to remove her hand. It just sat there, making sure permission was granted before she made another move.

She looked into the teleporter's eyes. There was something in there but it was not lust. Her heartbeat and breath were steady. Still… even if it wasn't motivated by perversion or lust she still wasn't ready. It wasn't a matter of trust it was the fact that it was embarrassing. She began to open her mouth to say something when the younger girl said, "I love you."

Misaka didn't respond with words but slowly she lowered the hand that covered her chest. Kuroko took it as permission enough and her hand began moving slowly towards Misaka's chest. It touched her blazer and teleported the piece of fabric off of her. Then she began unbuttoning the shirt with a single hand going the slow method to give her Onee-sama time to protest. But she did not even as she unbuttoned the last button and teleported the shirt off as well.

It wasn't until she began reaching for her Onee-sama's childish bra that she said anything. "Wait," Misaka spoke up and grabbed the teleporter's hand before it could reach its destination. She couldn't do it after all... not yet.

"Sorry Onee-sama," Kuroko said, chastised. She withdrew her hand.

Misaka brought her hand back from on top of Kuroko's heart and put both of them at her sides, curling them into fists as she worked up the nerve. "Turn around," she commanded.

Kuroko was slightly confused but followed the order. She heard her Onee-sama breathing deeply from behind her, clearly trying to calm down. Then she stepped up behind her and, with shaking hands, began trying to undo the strap of Kuroko's bra.

"Onee-sama?" Kuroko questioned.

"Don't say anything," Misaka warned. She was already nervous and embarrassed enough. The idea of doing this thing was actually scary to her… but, "If I do it first I can handle it." It wasn't so scary if she wasn't the one in such a vulnerable state, if she wasn't the one that had something this strange happening to them.

After far too long a time spent fiddling with it, Kuroko's bra finally fell to the floor. She coiled her arms around the younger girl, her hands trailing down her lines of scars and resting on the two almost imperceptibly small yet soft mounds of flesh. She grasped them eliciting an almost immediate squeak from the other girl. The sound was odd… kind of cute actually. She moved her hands in a circular motion causing another squeak as Kuroko began to squirm a little, pushing her chest further into Misaka's hands unconsciously.

She continued this, slowly acquiring an odd sense of power over the girl as she teased out the squeaks and other sounds from the teleporter. As she did she became less and less nervous and drew closer to Kuroko until her chest touched the other girl's back and she could feel the teleporter's heart beating a thousand miles an hour in her chest, a pace the electro-master's own heart easily matched.

She took in everything about this moment. The scent of lilies filled Misaka's nose as her chin rested on Kuroko's head, her face buried in her mane of auburn hair. The sound of her breathing was both rhythmic and random, interrupted by sharp gasps. Under her she felt soft skin.

She did not know how long this went on, nor how long it would have gone on afterward had Kuroko's heart not stopped for a moment as the teleporter shivered and inhaled sharply. She stopped immediately and asked with concern in her voice, "are you all right Kuroko?"

Her heartbeat resumed after a second but it wasn't until several seconds after that that she was able to respond.

"I'm fine," she said, "is it my turn yet?"

"… fine… I guess," she replied. It was only fair she supposed.

Kuroko swallowed and went around to her Onee-sama's back.

'What a wonderful dream,' she thought as she reached up, 'what a pity it's almost certainly not real…'

* * *

[1]: This is the logical purpose of such a gun and having such a precaution is not only not unreasonable but highly likely. However the complexity of the gun would mean that assault rifle versions of it would be difficult to mass produce, it is more likely that Anti-Skill snipers are equipped with sniper rifle versions while only a few automatic weapons were ever made.

* * *

Author's Note: There we are, a nice, long (quite long) chapter with a mix of action, exposition, and interaction. I have like three or four chapters to go so I'm trying to move the romance into a climax as well. Sorry for being so graphic with it in this chapter, I hope this isn't enough to make my fic M but I felt like it was necessary for me to go through the thought process during it, to either show how Misaka has grown but is still young and/ or to cast additional doubt on whether or not this is Kuroko's delusions or not.

* * *

Dedications: this chapter is dedicated to Akurelus, Ashuras, X-Ross, and my other fellow readers who left comments under "guest". Thanks all of you.

* * *

Coming Soon: The Shepherd versus The Butcher, the vengeance of the sacrificial flock.


	49. Toaru Gosa no Risuku

Toaru Gosa no Risuku

A Certain Risk of Error

* * *

Kuroko didn't sleep that night. This was a conscious choice of hers. She didn't want that dream of honey and darkness and thorns. She'd prefer the sweet delusions of wakefulness. After all, in a choice between two fictions wouldn't one choose the more pleasant one?

So she took a few caffeine tablets and some of her other medication and spent the night preparing for the next day, the last day. Tomorrow she would distance herself from Misaka as far as she could and hope that the voice couldn't find her. Even though she knew it was a futile attempt perhaps she could at least put enough distance between herself and Misaka as to make the time it would take to find her not worthwhile.

And since today would be her last day with her Onee-sama for who knows how long she decided to take her out on a date. And not just any date, the best possible date that she could conceive of. She got out her notebook and sat on the floor next to her Onee-sama's bed, holding the electro-master's hand throughout the night with her left hand while the right began jotting down notes. She spent 6 hours planning everything out then popped out to get everything she would need.

She stopped by some various shops, glad as ever for Academy City's 24/7 shopping district, though there was one thing that she would need to get later on since that shop wasn't automated.

After the shops she headed to the tall white, windowless obelisk that was in the middle of the city and she teleported herself up to the rooftop garden. She picked 10 and wrapped them in a ribbon, as a bouquet. As she did she was pricked by one of the thorns causing a minor bleed [1]. She wiped the blood off on her handkerchief, sad that Misaka wasn't there to suck it again. As unhygienic as it was it was not an unpleasant sensation.

With that done she went back home where she began preparing breakfast and lunch. Then she took some stomach medication for the upset stomach that she was sure she would soon have (she always had one after eating solid food after a while of her training diet). After that she began to put her finishing touches on her plan for the day.

* * *

Misaka woke up that morning to a delightful smell wafting through the apartment. The smell of Kuroko's cooking. A few more sniffs of the air made her even happier as she detected the delicious aromas of sizzling meats and other delightful things. Normally Kuroko tended to cook healthier meals for her and though they were tasty even her favorite foods made by someone as skilled as Kuroko was better when there was beef instead of tofu. Today, though, it seemed like Kuroko had splurged on some really good stuff.

The electro-master's eyes cracked open to see a hand resting in her own. The arm connected to it stretched across the bed , leading to a mane of pinkish brown hair turned away from her. She reached over with her free arm and began to pet the teleporter's head, "what're you doing on the floor there?"

"Oh, morning Onee-sama," She responded happily, relaxing at the petting, "just some financial stuff don't worry about it."

Misaka looked over at her. She was in the same state as last night, which was to say topless[2]. Next to her was a stack of paper, a few sheets of which she held in her hand. They were covered in numbers. Next to her was a lockbox which was locked shut. The papers vanished from her hand and the pile next to her, assumedly appearing in the box but Misaka couldn't see. Then Kuroko stood up, letting go of Misaka's hand, and put the box on her desk. Then she went to the kitchen.

Misaka joined her and surveyed the food. It looked delicious but something felt like it was missing. She tried to think what it was though she was still hardly awake and her mind was slow. It wasn't until Kuroko looked over to her with a smile on her face that she remembered what it was. She leaned down and kissed Kuroko. This time it was Kuroko who was the one who blushed.

"You never gave me a good morning kiss?" She said, though it was more of an inquiry than an explanation.

"Oh… sorry, I guess I was a little busy. I have some things for you," she said as she walked over to the other counter and picked up a bouquet of flowers and a small box of chocolates and gave them to her.

The flowers were… unique. The thorny stems and velvet soft leaves were a deep crimson purple and looked almost artificial, or at least dyed. The flower itself looked an orchid blossoming within the petals of a lily. The lily petals were pure white while the orchid petals were jet black. Through the middle of every petal, both white lily and black orchid, ran a blood red line that seemed to pool in the very center of the flower.

The chocolates were normal, though exquisite. There was one odd thing about them however, "Kuroko… these chocolates are homemade..." she said. She knew that making chocolates took hours, "how long have you been up?"

Kuroko shrugged and Misaka sighed as she put the flowers in the water filled vase that she was just now noticing had been put onto the table. "Nightmares?" the electro-master asked, concerned.

"No… far from it… I had an extremely pleasant dream…" she explained. There was a touch of sadness in her voice that told Misaka what she meant by that.

"Baka…" she said, annoyed as she moved behind Kuroko and wrapped her arms around the little girl, her hands traced her scars until she reached the teleporter's negligible chest. She grabbed the two little bumps causing another cute squeak to escape the girl's lips, "that wasn't a dream either you idiot," she massaged the teleporter's chest to try to convey the reality of the situation while regaining that feeling of control that she had had last night, "Can't I do a thing for you without you doubting whether you just dreamed it up? Is it really so hard to believe that I am capable of showing affection towards my own girlfriend that you think anything I do is fiction?" more and more annoyance leaked into her voice with every word as the massage got faster and rougher, "it's hard enough doing it the first time and the fact that you doubt it each time is starting to tick me off." By now her increasing irritation had caused small sparks to begin shooting from her forehead and through her hands.

This was the last straw for Kuroko, who until then had taken it like a champ. Her knees gave out from under her and she sank to the floor. "What a wonderful reality," she sighed, lost in ecstasy, "your food's on the counter… I'll join you at the table in a second."

"… are you alright?" She was now slightly concerned.

"I'm fine," the teleporter waved off, "just reveling in a dream come true."

Now it was Misaka's turn to blush as she took the food to the table. "Idiot," she remarked on the way.

"I'm your idiot though." She joined the older girl at the table with her own plate of food.

"Can my idiot put a shirt on?" The girl's bare chest was distracting her from her meal.

"Oh… sorry, sure thing," Kuroko obeyed immediately. As she did Misaka's eyes reexamined the flowers. They really were odd… she had never seen anything like them. "Where did you get these flowers from?" she decided to ask.

"Growing naturally on top of a building," she said, "I don't know much about them but I know that they're pretty and unique, much like yourself although I'd much prefer to look at you than a bunch of flowers."

Misaka grunted in acknowledgement of the compliment. Then she plucked one of the flowers out of the vase and walked over to the other girl who was just pulling her blazer on, "reminds me more of you than me actually..." She tucked the flower in the other girl's hair.

"How so?" Kuroko asked, turning around.

"The whole Shiro-Kuro thing… it goes with your name." she inspected the teleporter and the new addition's impact on her appearance, "looks good on you."

Kuroko blushed a little and sighed, "what is it with you three and having flowers in your hair?" she asked, referring to Misaka's hairpin, Saten's… well… flower, and Uiharu's notorious wreathe. Still, despite her words, she made no move to take the flower out. After that the two girls had breakfast together, chatting about light, inconsequential things.

When they were finished Kuroko asked if Misaka still wanted to go out with her like they had agreed the past Friday. "Sure," she responded, "where did you want to go?"

"Well… there's a toy shop that opened a couple weeks ago in the Garden of Education, we could go there. I hear it even has a station where you can make your own stuffed animal." Misaka's face lit up in response to her idea though her agreement as a more casual, "I guess that sounds ok…" Still, despite trying to sound cool her excitement seeped into her voice as well.

* * *

So Misaka got dressed and the two left, walking towards the Garden of Education. A couple minutes into the walk Kuroko attempted to intertwine their fingers but Misaka pulled away. The teleporter was disappointed but did not press the matter. But after a second had passed and Misaka grabbed onto the younger girl's hand in a more friendshippy kind of way so as not to betray that they were a couple. This made Kuroko smile. Everything was going perfectly, even better than she had hoped and planned.

That was until she heard a familiar voice calling out making Misaka break the grip immediately. "Hey Kuroko, Misaka," Saten called out, running up to them, Uiharu in tow.

"Misaka-san," Uiharu began when she arrived, "I heard about what happened with you and Saten yesterday, with the glowing ESPers…"

"Huh? Glowing ESPers?" Kuroko asked, more than a little annoyed at the interruption but curiousity piqued nonetheless.

"Oh I guess Misaka didn't tell yo- ooo nice flower," she said when she noticed it, as distractable as a squirrel with ADHD, "it's pretty. Where'd you find it?"

"Growing on…. What does it matter, what about glowing ESPers?"

"It's kind of a long story… we're off to get some ice cream, you want to come?" Uiharu offered.

"No thanks, we're heading to the garden of education. But it's been great seeing you."

"The Garden of Education," the other two said unanimously, remembering the delicious cakes and generally cool atmosphere from the last time they were there.

"Yeah, we're heading to a…" Misaka began then she amended herself before she said something embarrassing, "I mean we're just walking around. You want to join us." The two hastily agreed and they all began heading off together.

As they began walking and explaining what had happened they began to feel an odd chill in the air, a hanging malevolence filled with ill intent. Had Kuroko not been walking in front they also might have seen the glare she was currently giving the sidewalk in front of her as well, a glare so full of darkness that a demon would turn away.

Distracted as she was with her annoyance she only gave half an ear to their story. "It sounds interesting," she lied when they had finished, by then they had just entered the Gardens of Education, "I think it warrants investigation, but since I'm still on leave until tomorrow that job falls to you Uiharu, don't let us down."

"Eeehhh…" the flower headed girl whined, "but I just got here…"

"She can do that later," Misaka defended, "no need to be so rude..."

"Sorry, I just thought that it was something important... apparently you thought it was important enough to disrupt our plans for..."

"Oh, sorry were we interrupting something," Saten asked, seemingly just realizing.

"Yes," Kuroko said.

"No," Misaka said at the same moment, then she looked at Kuroko menacingly, "you're really pissing me off right now."

"No... I guess you weren't interrupting anything after all," Kuroko relented, her voice flat and neutral as she disappeared.

* * *

"Are you two ok? Were you guys in the middle of something? Should we just go?" Uiharu asked, concerned for her friend who had seemed a little... heartbroken.

"Everything's fine, let's just go," Misaka said, anger in her voice both at Kuroko's behavior and at her own. She knew she had been too harsh, and after such a nice morning too... Still the younger girl had been acting like a brat, so she had certainly deserved it somewhat.

For a few minutes they continued onwards in silence, Misaka's hostility slowly building while Saten and Uiharu wondered what they could do to make things better while still avoiding that wrath. Misaka ended up being so distracted that she didn't notice the person walking on the sidewalk in front of her until she bumped into them, and she was so irritated that her response was an aggressive, "watch it," rather than her usual, "sorry".

The other person responded to her irritation by punching her in the stomach. "Running into my fist like that... it seems you're the one who needs to watch it," she responded with an equal amount of irritation.

Misaka's eyes narrowed as she zapped the person into unconsciousness... or would have had they not disappeared. Suddenly she felt her legs being kicked out from under her. "too slow," the person's voice said from behind her, "all you pathetic sloths are too slow." the electro-master attempted to turn around and shock the person behind her but there was no one there, causing her lightning bolt to careen into a nearby lamppost, blowing out the light.

Misaka looked around to see the girl leaning on the side of a building. "What's wrong?" she asked, "are you blind or just stupid? After all you have the accuracy of a third grader huffing paint."

The girl standing in front of her was tall and toned and looked a year or two older than Misaka herself. She had black boyish hair cut short to keep it out of her way. She had a duffel bag slung to her back. But Misaka didn't exactly notice those things, she was too busy noticing the clothes she was wearing, which was comprised of a single, white, skintight suit. She had seen it before... the wearers of the massive robot suits wore the exact same, though the logo was missing from hers. Not only that but surrounding the girl was a light pink glow of the same type, though a different color, as Tetsu's from yesterday.

'Another one of these guys... maybe we can learn a little bit about what's going on...' is what should have been going through Misaka's head rather than her actually thoughts of rage. She lowered her hand and shot electricity out in a cone at the girl making it impossible to escape unscathed. Yet escape unscathed she did, disappearing in an instant and reappearing behind her. 'a teleporter...' Misaka figured out.

"I told you, you're too slow to beat me." Misaka swiveled towards the voice readying her lightning but stopped suddenly as she saw that the girl had reappeared behind Uiharu and was using her as a shield. "speed is distance divided by time. Anything divided by zero is infinity so I am capable of going infinitely fast. Not even your lightning can catch me. And if you can't catch me you can't beat me."

"Who are you and what do you want?" the electro-master asked, unable to do anything as long as her friend was being held hostage.

"Hmm... you three answer first. I'd like to know what level ESPers I'm about to beat to a pulp. Given that that's a Tokiwadai uniform you must be pretty powerful right? Three at least."

"What do levels matter?"

The girl sighed, "I've been looked down upon for a long time for being a level one teleporter. I mean technically the fact that I can teleport myself should mean I'm automatically level four, but apparently I couldn't do it far enough for them. But now I have power and I'm going to prove that I can beat anyone, be they a level two, or three, or four, or even five."

"Even five eh?" Misaka said, "well here's your chance to prove that, just leave my friends out of it."

"Oh... this will be interesting," the girl said with a smile as she drew her arm back then swung it forward, punching at a point in midair, then she suddenly appeared in front of Misaka and the punch instead hit her directly in the stomach, then she drove her fist towards the electro-master's chin in an uppercut. She stumbled back a bit then, as soon as she recovered, attempted to shock the other girl, but she had long since gone.

"Teleportation is great. You can never get hit if you have even an instant of warning, you can go through barriers that other people can't, which happens to be a great tool for robbing places without being noticed. A rich neighborhood like this is a gold mine. It's really the perfect power with no drawbacks whatsoever." She began then disappeared, reappearing behind Misaka and kicking her hard in the back, sending her tumbling forward.

Despite the fact that she had a teleporter for a roommate and was quite familiar with her abilities, she still didn't know how to counter this. If her friends weren't here she could unleash an omnidirectional shock so that it would hit her no matter where she was, unless she teleported behind cover. Kuroko had never run like this, she had never been forced to try and counter her powers. The only time she used them against her Misaka had lost. So Misaka chose defense over offense and surrounded herself with electricity. Then if the other person tried to hurt her they would be shocked instead.

The other girl smiled at this and disappeared, reappearing behind Saten and pushing the girl towards Misaka who quickly turned off the shock field and caught her friend so she wouldn't get hurt. But that action gave the other girl the opportunity to teleport beside Misaka and begin to deliver a punch.

* * *

But this time it was her attack which missed as the electro-master and her long haired friend disappeared to be replaced by a shorter girl with pinkish brown pigtails. The girl caught her fist and redirected the movement, throwing her to the ground and pinning her there with her foot. "Another interruption..." she said with a disturbing amount of malice in her voice.

But the girl just smiled, "another teleporter eh... this just became more fun..." she remarked. Suddenly she disappeared, slightly surprising Kuroko who began to turn around to where the other girl had reappeared.

From the sidelines the others watched as the older girl reached into the bag on her back and drew out two short thin katana-like swords. They gasped as she swung them at the younger girl who had just managed to turn around. The swords scored two direct hits on her torso, the fabric being shredded by the twin blades as they dragged across her chest and stomach.

Kuroko teleported away to reassess the situation. The little pain that there was was dampened by medication and with Kuro helping in her calculations it didn't affect her teleportation at all. Kuro's help also allowed her to teleport faster than this girl who only had one mind to process all the complex equations that teleportation required. Unfortunately this hardly gave her the advantage in anything but putting distance between them, something that was unwise to do considering she could go after her friends and her Onee-sama if that happened. As much as it annoyed her she couldn't teleport in this battle.

That didn't mean she couldn't use her powers however.

Kuroko quickly dipped into the splits and ducked her head low avoiding the slashes of the other teleporter as she appeared behind her and swung at her neck and waist. Teleportation could only be done through certain routes and shortcuts in the eleventh dimension and those routes needed to be opened by ESPer powers before teleportation could take place. This allowed Kuroko and other teleporter's to feel teleportation, even if it was not their own, and avoid it, this combined with the fact that the teleporter tended to begin her movements before the teleportation helped Kuroko predict where she would appear and what she would do once she was there.

However the time intervals between the teleportations were unnaturally short, giving Kuroko perhaps half a second of warning before she appeared in front of her and stabbed at her shoulder.

Kuroko leaned to the right to avoid it and rolled sidewise, pushing off the ground just in time to avoid a third sword slash. She got to her feet again and began dodging slash after slash from all directions, hardly getting a tenth of a second of breathing room in between. Still her body moved like water in a way an acrobat would be proud of and even with such little warning she masterfully dodged most of the blows.

Unfortunately in several cases it wasn't enough and rather than dodge she just needed to ensure that her chest got hit rather than her arms or head or legs.

Misaka, Uiharu, and Saten watched in horror as their friend was ruthlessly and brutally slashed again and again by swords. Misaka wondered if she should do something but the girl was teleporting all around, impossible to hit with a focused lightning strike and any unfocused strike would hit Kuroko too. The others could do even less.

As time went on and Kuroko got more and more tired from the dodging it was only a matter of time before she slipped up. Finally it happened as the other girl teleported to her side and swung for her neck. The position she had contorted herself into for her last dodge wouldn't allow her to move out of the way in time. So she took drastic measures and punched the oncoming sword hard with her left fist, successfully diverting the blow at the cost of the skin on top of her knuckles and a considerable amount of pain. She instinctively recoiled causing the other girl to smile.

"End of the line," she said and the others watched as she stabbed Kuroko through the stomach, impaling her in place as she swung her second blade down through her shoulder through her torso finally embedding itself in her heart.

* * *

That was what should have happened at least.

What actually happened was quite different. The sword she stabbed did not pierce anything, merely sliding along the same hard surface that her swords had been hitting since the beginning. The sword swung at her shoulder made a direct hit but snapped off instead of embedding itself in her flesh. The end of the flimsy sword sailed through the air where it got stuck in a nearby shop's door.

For a second nothing happened and the two teleporter's simply stood there, the older one confused as to why her attacks hadn't worked. Then the younger one looked up at her making a chill run down her spine as she was met with a glare as cold and heartless as death itself that bored into her very soul.

Kuro made the first move, swinging her hand down and snapping the blade of the other sword from its hilt, the thin and weak metal easily giving way beneath her powerful chop. Then she grabbed onto the older girl's arm with two hands, one above the elbow and one below. She wrenched and twisted her arm, dislocating the elbow joint and disabling her arm. Then she spun around, keeping hold of the other girl's now broken arm, and threw her directly at a nearby expensive sports car. She hit it hard, shattering the windshield and caving in the roof slightly.

Despite being an impact which would have knocked most people unconscious the other girl pushed herself off the hood looking only slightly worse for wear if you disregarded the limp arm.

"Is that all you got? I thought fighting another teleporter would be more fun than this... but you haven't teleported once. Why are you holding back, you can't beat me if you don't go all out you know."

"_You say that as if I hadn't already beaten you..." _Kuro replied cooly, "_I'm not an idiot. Teleportation must be done with forethought and caution especially when another teleporter is the opponent."_

"You're just weak! I don't care if you broke my swords I'm still gonna beat you, I'm still better than you!" she roared as she teleported behind Kuro to finish the battle.

Kuro sighed and began to turn around before the other girl had even disappeared. There were only a limited number of paths and given her previous behavior Kuro knew exactly where she would appear. She lifted her arm up as the older girl appeared right in the place she had guessed.

Kuro covered the girl's mouth with her free hand as the other reached up from inside the girl's body and grabbed her heart, squeezing it tightly. The aura surrounding the girl changed from light pink to midnight black as it surged then began to draw into the center, ebbing away.

"_You are far too reckless to claim to be better than me. Teleportation is one of the most dangerous powers there is. The injury rate is 60% and the mortality rate is 40%. For teleporters like you and me capable of teleporting their own bodies that doubles to 80% mortality with a 98% injury rate… well I say 98% but now,"_ she explained as she yanked her arm downward out of the black haired girl's chest through the hole that it had created. It was covered in a layer of dark red, almost black, blood, though the blood was not her own_, "I say 98% but now I guess it's 99%.[3]"_ Kuro stated nonchalantly as she took out her cell phone and pressed it to her ear after hitting one of the speed dial buttons. As it began ringing she released her grip on the girl and gently pushed her backwards causing her to fall to the ground on her back and minimize the blood loss, "_I need an ambulance at the corner of 8__th__ and Willow. A fragging incident"_ she said dictating their location and the nature of the emergency. Fragging was a term that teleporters used to describe what happened when an object was teleported another object and it was the number one cause of death and injury among teleporters who, aside from Kuroko, destroyed whatever was teleported into another object rather than the object itself. "_a couple pints of blood, unknown type and probably an auto-surgeon."_ She finished before closing the phone and putting it back in her pocket.

Misaka approached her, slowly, cautiously… as if afraid. The others were far more visible in their fear. She had to admit that the sight probably was scary and Shiro's friends had never seen Kuro's brutality in action firsthand. "Kuroko…" she began.

"_You mentioned it yesterday… how I don't have accidents. This is why… this is what happens when I do have one… " _It was why she hadn't teleported during the battle. With two teleporters zipping around the chance of fragging was near 100%. "_Now __I am going home,"_ she said before turning around and walking into an alley. When she was out of sight she began running. Even without her teleportation she knew that no one without super speed was capable of catching her. She quickly transitioned from the alleys to the roofs to avoid any people. Explaining her blood covered arm would be far too difficult.

She made it to the dorm and into her room without any hassle. When she got there she grabbed the flower that the pereskia had put in her hair and threw it back towards the vase, feeling a small prick as she did so. She looked down at the second wound she had received from the flowers that day and sighed, sucking the blood from the comparatively superfluous wound on her finger[4]. As she did she saw the black blood that stained her knuckles from where the skin had been sliced off and was surprised to see that it had already mostly healed. Maybe that wound was more minor than she had suspected as well.

She walked to the bathroom, passing her desk on the way. She looked at the lockbox sitting there. **Be angry.** A silent voice whispered making Kuro's eyes narrow as the powerful voice began to affect her as well.

A few seconds later she went into the bathroom and began running the water. She washed off her arm and then began drawing a bath, hoping the warm water would alleviate the pain and help heal her newest bruises.

* * *

The second Kuroko rounded the alley Misaka had begun to run after her, though she disappeared almost immediately at which point Misaka completely lost her. So with a sigh she decided to just go home, hoping perhaps that Kuroko was there.

When she arrived she saw that Kuroko had clearly been here, though she could not see any sign of the younger girl's presence at the moment.

She sighed as she closed the door behind her. 'The poor girl must be terrified,' she thought. The sight had been horrific and it must have been even worse for Kuroko. "This is what happens when I make a mistake". That was what she had said...

Misaka was immune to her own power as well as electricity in general. Likewise people like pyrokineticists and things like that tended to have ways to avoid being hurt by their own power. Teleporters had nothing of the sort. The ended up killing themselves with their power... frequently if what Kuroko had said was true.

She looked at Kuroko's desk and saw the box from this morning sitting on it. The box's lid had been caved in by what looked like a powerful punch. The lock looked like it had been ripped off.

Misaka, curious, opened the box and saw a pile of notebook paper with writing on it. She took the first sheet and looked at the curved, formal handwriting.

* * *

"Rules for my Best Date Ever with Onee-sama

"1: No aphrodisiacs. Even if it ends up working the love won't be real.

"2: No initiating any displays of affection. It is Onee-sama's day and I will not force her to do anything she does not want to do. Initiating hand holding is acceptable however but don't be insistent.

"3: The goal is Onee-sama's happiness so No teasing. As cute as a blushing Onee-sama is, making her uncomfortable would be counterproductive to the goal.

"4: No suggesting any of the places or activities listed on page 17.

"5: Don't expect anything. If she gives me no more than a hug today that will be fine as long as she is happy. If she does more then be happy but do not get your hopes up."

* * *

This continued on for the entire page, listing various things not to do or to watch out for. The next page had a rough schedule of the day's events followed by page after page of analysis of which places to go and what to do. One such page detailed the gifts that she would give Misaka.

* * *

"Onee-sama likes romantic things so go for the classics, flowers and chocolates."

* * *

Then it spent half a page arguing what kind of flowers and chocolates to get, listing tens of possibilities before settling on the ones that she had been given that morning.

The other half detailed the gift that she would give her at the end of the date.

* * *

"This is going to be the best date ever so make sure the present is as nice as possible, no matter how expensive."

* * *

After several lines of argument about what type of present it would be it finally settled on seemed to have been premade a while ago that she simply referred to as "That".

* * *

"Unfortunately the specialty jewelry shop that the particular piece is at isn't open at night so I'll need to pop out during the date... find some excuse to do so and hurry."

* * *

'Is that where she went? I thought she stormed off to have a tantrum.' Misaka wondered but lo and behold there was a jewelry box sitting in the box right beside the papers. The logo etched onto the box was unfamiliar but was not the name of one of the larger jewelers in the city. She opened it up to see a beautiful sterling silver chain necklace. The chains were carved in the form of miniature lightning weaving around each other beautifully. Attached were two pendants made of a bluish gem that matched the color of her own lightning shaped like two lightning bolts pointed towards a third pendant in between the two at the center of the necklace. This pendant was made of a red gem and shaped in the form of a heart. She could barely make out some writing on it which said, "my heart beats for you."

She looked at the necklace in her hand then at the piece of paper.

'Date...' She said in her head after seeing the word written at the top of each piece, 'we were on a date?' She drove her forehead into her palm. 'so that was why she was being like that... damn it... I'm such an idiot.' She thought as she imagined what had happened from Kuroko's perspective and began to understand just how bad a day the teleporter must have had. She put on the necklace and looked around the dorm again for some clue as to Kuroko's location. She would need to find her and make things up to her.

Misaka eyes fell on the bathroom door, since the light was on she guessed that Kuroko was in it, sulking. The door was unlocked so she simply opened it and walked in. "Kuroko," she began as she scanned the room for the teleporter only to stop in her tracks and her sentence as she saw the other girl's head peering at her from the bathtub, the rest of her body submerged beneath the water.

"Sorry," the electro-master said quickly turning around and about to leave when she heard Kuroko's voice.

"_You opened the box_," she stated simply and neutrally. She had seen the necklace dangling from Misaka's neck.

"Uh… yeah. Sorry…" the older girl responded to her roommate, still turned around and away from the naked girl.

"_There are a lot of things I have trouble with. I have trouble with restraint, I have trouble with shame, but more than that I have trouble with people in general. I've never been a very social person, people have been hard for me to __handle, even… no especially you. Normally it doesn't matter, normally I don't care what people think," Kuro dictated Shiro's thoughts pouring the proper emotions into it. Though she was loathed to be so kind to the pereskia and so self-derogatory she needed to make up for destroying Shiro's lockbox. She stood up and walked over to the pereskia, still dripping wet, "But right now I'm standing on a minefield. I step wrong and everything blows up. Even if I miss the big mines I can still end up getting hurt, in fact I expect to. The only way around this is to try and come up with a plan. A step by step guide that will help prevent me from messing up. I know you better than anyone else, I can easily take your actions into account and even if I miscalculate I always have a few back up plans. But what good is that. Life is like teleportation... a single, tiny mistake is all it takes and everything you've worked for is taken away from you in an instant. So I think to myself that if I prepare and it fails then maybe it wasn't my fault… but in the back of my mind I always think it is…" _

She kissed Misaka on the cheek to transfer control and Shiro took over, "I'm such an idiot you know. My plans are stupid... they'll never work out or come true. They're more silly little dreams than a plan. A silly little dream where you and I live together, happily married, with a nice house in the city with a couple of little children. You can choose the childrens' names but I get veto power if you try and name them after a cartoon character or something. They'll have my hair and your eyes. They'll be happy kids and we'll read them bedtime stories every night and then we'll tuck them in tell them we love them and they'll say, 'we love you too. You're the best mommies in the whole world.' Then we'll head to our bedroom and get changed for bed and I'll tease you for still wearing Gekota pajamas and you'll blush and say how nostalgic it is and how it reminds you of the good old days and I'll laugh and kiss you and remind you that it still is the good old days, how every day we're together is a good day and you'll smile and agree and take me in your arms and we'll fall back onto the bed and I'll say 'I love you' and you'll say 'I love you too' and I'll finally feel like I am where I'm supposed to be, where I want to be, and you'll never leave me and I'll never be alone. But that's just a silly little dream. It won't ever come true anyway…" Kuroko said, a few tears escaped the corner of her eyes. She didn't deserve a happy ending. She'd never have a true home or a loving family.

"True," Misaka said, seemingly agreeing with her inner thoughts, "it is kind of ridiculous. Were both girls after all."

'Of course,' Kuroko thought to herself. She knew that that would be the biggest problem with their relationship from the start. As much as she hoped and dreamed she doubted that Misaka's interest in her as a girlfriend would extend beyond middle school. A little schoolgirl crush was something quickly grown out of for most people, even if she knew she would never grow out of hers. Then one day a man would come and whisk Misaka off her feet and she would watch, happy for Misaka whenever she saw that smile or embarrassed blush that played across her face when they were together but slowly dying inside. And when the day finally came for her to marry she would go and support her even as she watched her be snatched away forever because she knew that her Onee-sama's happiness was more important than anything else and anything else was more important than her own happiness. When the wedding was over she would begin teleporting up until she reached the moon and she would spend the rest of her life there with Kuro hoping that the one she loved was happy without her.

"We're both girls so we can't exactly have children together and I doubt any ones we adopted would have our features," Misaka stated.

"We'll try hard and find a way," Kuroko said. She knew it would never happen but she was willing to defend the dream that it might to the death

"Not only that but houses in this city are expensive and I don't plan to live off of my parents forever so what job do you expect me to get to support two children and a house?"

"You can have any job you like. I plan to go into investing so I can spend as much time with the kids as I can. And I'll cook for you and clean for you and greet you every day when you come home from work with a big smile and a warm bath."

A few seconds passed then Misaka asked, "would we have any pets?"

"Of course. I'd go hunting all over the city, over the world if I have to, to find you a cat that doesn't react poorly to your presence for your 19th birthday present. And of course the kids will often find little creatures and bring them home and ask me if they can keep it and I'll say no then they'll go to you and ask you and you'll say yes because you're a softy and you think it's cute too and I'll sigh as I'm outvoted but I'll be upset at how you didn't support me and you'll assure me I'll fall in love with the kids' newest find and then the three of you will all look at me with your best pouts and I'll sigh again and say all right and you'll all hug me and I'll assure you that this will be the last time but I know it's going to happen again and I know that I'm going to fold like I always do because know that the hug at the end makes it worth it."

Misaka laughed, "Sounds like the kids have you wrapped around their finger."

"No… I'll be the strict one. You'll be the nice one who they have wrapped around their finger. But since I'm wrapped around yours I'll end up caving in a lot. Still we'll know when to put our foot down so they won't become entitled brats or anything, though we might spoil them a little bit."

"Rina and Suki," Misaka piped up, "those'll be their names."

Kuroko smiled, her tears beginning to stop, "those are perfect…"

"Tell me more about them," the electro-master requested, finding herself getting lost in the fantasy too.

Kuroko opened her mouth to continue but then she shook her head. "What's the point... as you said it's ridiculous, my dreams won't come true."

"It's ridiculous because two girls can't have babies," the electro-master comforted, "but if you say you'll find a way then I promise I will do everything in my power to help your dreams come true..."

the teleporter looked at the older girl and as she stared into her eyes she felt something like hope stir within her. So she continued her story, telling her Onee-sama about their marvelous future together until...

…

…

* * *

[1]: Fun fact! The stem and leaves of this particular plant have a complex network of Mercury Sulfide[HgS] molecules bound to cells and glucate chains making it safe to be around or even eat. However the thorns are made of a grouping of specially evolved cells which have cell walls partially composed of a compound called Dimethylmercury [HgC2H6], making it incredibly lethal to any herbivores attempting to eat the entire plant… or anyone who happens to get pricked by a thorn and happens to put the finger that was pricked in their or someone else's mouth... Not that Kuroko knew that.

[2]: She put a shirt on to go out obviously but she changed out of that when she got back.

[3]: This percentage is both true and false. The likelihood of injury is 98.76% for a teleporter capable of teleporting themselves, but since there have only ever been 30 in the history of Academy City (only 6 of which, as previously mentioned, are still alive) the percent injury was 93.333% before and 96.667% after rather than what Kuroko said, but that wouldn't have sounded as cool.

[4]: If her survival seems inconsistent with what I said earlier then just wait… it will be explained.

* * *

Author's Note: Ok. This is the third or fourth to last chapter and the romantic climax as well as the last chapter for what might be a while. I am going to release the next group of chapters out at the same time so you guys don't hate me for what I do next chapter (or the chapter after that depending on how things go, either way it will be the second to last chapter). I'll work hard to get it out as soon as possible which might be less than a week even considering I've already written half of the last chapter.

Oh and sorry to fans of Misaka for having her be rescued again this chapter, but don't worry because the shoe will soon be on the other foot.

* * *

Dedications: To continue my tradition of dedicating my chapters to the people who leave reviews, this chapter goes out to , CrossFaded, and, again, EtherealFox

* * *

Coming Soon: The hangman's gambit, a lost shepherd a broken knight and shattered hope.


	50. Toaru Yakuza no Shimeshi

Toaru Yakuza[1] no Shimeshi

A Certain Showing of the Hand[1]

* * *

**Important Note: There is another chapter after this. Don't start this unless you have time to read them both and don't write me angry reviews until you've done so.**

* * *

"Well that wraps up the preliminary experiments..." Vyers said with a sigh, "As expected the Cloak of Elijah's brainwave standardization effects extend the abilities of David's Blessing for far longer than the hour the control group could go for with no sign of deterioration after that."

"Then I guess it is time for the last steps. To see if the effects of David's Blessing on our artificial [2] level five ends up over-stimulating the AIM field causing The Queen's own power to rip herself apart. If that doesn't happen we will use The Queen to acquire the hard copy of the Horns of Jericho and battle test an enhanced level five at the same time," Lammington outlined the plan, "The ultimate goal is to see if she is able to bypass Misaka's electrical field and see the degree of control she has over her if the field can be bypassed. Once the data has been compiled I can trust you to handle the rest correct?"

"Of course. My power should easily be able to disable both The Queen, The Railgun, and anyone else they happen to bring. Now shall we go and prepare the Queen for tomorrows experiment?"

"Yes we should get to that immediately. Remember to take the proper precautions so that she does not discover our true intentions."

"No need to worry about me mon ami. Caution is my oldest friend," his statement was met with a skeptical smile, "either way no one is easier to fool than an arrogant illusionist so there's hardly a need to worry."

Lammington shrugged and the two began the final stage of the experiment.

* * *

At the moment Kuroko's emotions were somewhat of a jumble. Happiness was inarguably at the forefront but there was sadness and anger in there as well.

And now there was annoyance.

It was the third day since the voice had begun playing. Last time it had taken exactly this long for her mind to be completely taken over so she had decided to put distance between herself and her Onee-sama so at the very least she couldn't be used as a weapon against her.

She had planned to leave the district but she had just received a text from Riko telling her that he had finally got the information she had wanted. While the information on Vulcanus Industries could have waited she had requested a little additional information yesterday, information about the Queen's power that would greatly help her avoid it altogether. If she didn't get it now she might not have a chance later on. Still it was annoying her that she had to risk it.

But had to risk it she did and was soon at the tall skyscraper. By now it was later on in the afternoon, making the risk even greater, so she decided to just finish this as quickly as possible.

So she teleported up to the top floor and knocked on the door, then entered, opening her mouth to speak when she saw Uiharu and Saten standing in the office looking at her while Riko reclined in his chair grinning amused at the chaotic situation he had created.

Uiharu was the first to speak, saying, "Kuroko? What are you doing here?"

The teleporter's face showed only a little of the surprise she felt. "It's a bit of a story. During the street racing case I heard something about Simurgh Industries from one of the people so I decided to investigate to see what exactly it was. Unfortunately I was put on leave before I could completely investigate. However, since I was reinstated today, I decided to continue my investigation." Her lie was quick and well crafted, totally fooling the others, "what about you what are you doing here?"

"It's career day and I'm doing an assignment on what my future aspiration is. Chiko-san is a legend among computer programmers," Uiharu explained. Riko winced and Saten giggled at her words.

"Please," Riko said casually, "no need to be so formal. Just call me Jitsuyo."

"Oh, right sorry," the flower headed girl apologized, "anyway, shouldn't you be in the hospital, you got really hurt yesterday didn't you?"

"I'm fine. They were just training swords," she lied, "They can't actually cut me."

"But your hand was hit and you were bleeding," Uiharu argued. Despite how scary the girl had been acting yesterday it was scarier to think that she was so severly hurt. She had been worried about her all day yesterday afterwards. She had tried to call her but the call hadn't gone through.

Kuroko held up a completely intact and unhurt hand. "I don't know what you saw but my hand is fine." Though the fact that it was fine was surprising even to Shiro. She had always been a fast healer but it had healed before she had even gotten out of the bath without any medicine whatsoever. Her bruises as well had been far less severe than they logically should have been. Kuro had a theory but she kept this from Shiro knowing she would be unlikely to believe her.

"Good to hear you're ok," Saten said casually. She had been as worried as the flower headed girl but she had kept it in so she could comfort her friend. Right now the atmosphere was tense so she tried to say something to lighten the mood, "hey did you know that Jitsuyo-san here is an administrator to my favorite urban legend site?"

"A programmer needs a hobby or else they would quickly go insane," he shrugged, "Now moving on to what we talked about earlier, before your… "leave" did you call it? I have all the information about that particular transaction in my file room over there," he pointed, "it's the one labeled Map Room."

Kuroko simply nodded and went into the pointed out room, leaving Saten to deal with the burning question. "Why exactly is it labeled Map Room?" she asked.

"A wrong label on a program can mess everything up, but in life it doesn't matter nearly as much, so I abuse the ability a little. Or maybe I've just been driven to the brink of insanity by hanging out with computers for so long," he shrugged, "who knows. It's why I was more than happy to accept your request for an interview today." That was of course hardly the real reason. He knew these two were Kuroko's friends so he thought he could have some fun messing with her by getting them to meet up. Of course the fun was somewhat ruined by Kuroko's expert lying abilities but such was life.

In the Map Room file room Kuroko looked over the file that had been left out. It had the information she wanted so she pocketed it and closed it up, putting a few large bills in its place, heading back into the main room afterwards. "It seems like it checks out, sorry for the suspicions,' she said, "I'll be going now."

"Wait," Uiharu interrupted, still worried about the teleporter despite her assurances, "my interview is over now so why don't we leave together?"

Kuroko quickly weighed her options. Given what she had seen when she skimmed over the folder the Queen had a range to her power. Given the locations of where she had been influenced before, along with the fact that there was nothing now, she guessed that she was out of range. So she would be okay for now. She could see her colleagues concern and didn't want to worry her even more so she said "Sure thing," and the three girls left the building together.

They hadn't gotten far before a whisper carried through her head, more powerful than ever before. It was an echo of the past as once again the voice of honey and thorns simply said

They hadn't gotten far before a whisper carried through her head, more powerful than ever before. It was an echo of the past as once again the voice of honey and thorns simply said **"You are mine."**

The light in her eyes died as her body moved, reaching into the bag that she had with her, taking out a gun that she had not had yesterday, that she had would not normally carry.

She lifted it up to her two friends who had been walking a bit ahead of her. She pointed it at their backs and fired a shot into each of them watching as their bodies hit the ground the next second.

* * *

It was easy to tell when Misaka was angry. Her face would always get red, sparks shot from her forehead, her hands were constantly clenched in fists, and her voice rarely fell below a shout.

Based on that Misaka was perfectly calm. Her face was normal, her hands were relaxed by her sides, she was silent, and no sparks were visible.

However it would not be hard to see she was still angry. The fact that any electrical device within five feet of her surged and exploded for apparently no reason would be enough of a tip off for most people.

The reason for her anger was that she had finally managed to tease out of Kuroko the reason for her odd behavior recently through methods that themselves would have been enough of a cause for panic had this particular thing not been immensely more important than worrying about something like that.

The Queen had returned and was again attempting to control Kuroko. If thing were like last time then Kuroko had told her that this was the day she would be controlled.

She had been annoyed when she had found out (at the time annoyance had been all she could muster rather than her usual response given the situation which would have been fury) that Kuroko had been hiding it for so long but she had told her that she didn't want her to worry about her trying to change something that couldn't be changed. It was an internal battle for control, she argued, and the best thing for it was her love which is why she had been so desperate for that very thing.

Now she was gone, trying to distance herself so she wouldn't hurt Misaka while the electro-master searched for the Queen. She was immune to her powers so it was just a matter of finding her.

Of course that was hardly as easy as it sounded. She had no hints, clues, leads, or anything which could help her find out where she was. She churned the problem over and over in her head but she couldn't reason it out either.

The fact that she had waited so long was what made it confusing. Her revenge should have been immediate, but it wasn't. Had it been immediate she could have made a guess as to where she could be, but because it had taken so long she could have been out of the city for all she knew.

'Damnit! This is so frustrating,' she growled in her head as the streetlights shattered around her.

Then suddenly her phone began to ring: Unknown number.

She held it to her ear. "who is it and what the hell do you want?" She said with an immeasurable amount of hostility.

"Tsk Tsk Misaka-chan," a familiar voice said, making Misaka's grip tighten on her cell phone so hard the durable plastic began to creak, "is that how you greet everyone?"

"Misaki," she hissed, "Where are you and what are you planning?"

"Such a harsh tone…" the Queen gasped, feigned hurt dripping from her voice, "and to think that I called to help you out. If I wasn't such a nice person I might refuse to tell you where your friend is for something like that."

"…what…"

"The little teleporter girl you came here with. It seems she's in a bit of trouble. I can't say what happened to the other two who were with her but she seems to be having a hard time at the moment."

"WHERE IS KUROKO!" Misaka demanded.

"A few blocks from you, just turn left and keep on running. But you better hurry, I'm not sure how much longer she'll last."

"I will hunt you down, I will find you, and I will make you pay for this," the electro-master warned, a fiery hate beyond hate in her voice and eyes.

"Good luck with that," the Queen answered, sounding amused as she hung up the phone.

Misaka put her phone in her pocket as she ran to where the Queen had told her Kuroko would be. She got there in seconds and saw Kuroko fighting a massive crowd of people. Several were already unconscious but she was quickly being overwhelmed. It was like a scene out of a zombie movie, with their dead eyes and relentless aggression.

Misaka fired a lightning bolt amongst them, taking all of them out within a second. Then she looked at the teleporter, "are you ok Kuroko?" she asked, taking a step towards the girl. Suddenly she turned around and swiped her hand down through a stop sign. She caught it with her gloved hands before it fell and turned around, swing it down onto her. She was caught by surprise but her lightning-quick reflexes allowed her to roll out of the way just in time.

She was too late. The teleporter's eyes had that same dead expression and cold eyes that she had had the first time. This was what the Queen had wanted. She couldn't hurt Kuroko but she knew she would need to if she wanted to live. Her fists clenched with the difficulty of the decision.

* * *

"_Caution is not your strong suit is it pereskia?" _Kuroko said as she hefted the stop sign back onto her shoulder, revealing the two knife wielding hoodlums that had been behind Misaka ready to stab her. The voice was familiar but not the voice of the teleporter that she knew and loved. This voice was cold and empty as the void of space itself, it was the voice she had heard during the fight yesterday and during a few other occasions, albeit only briefly. Misaka also noticed that her hair was not tied up in its usual pigtails, but rather fell free around her shoulders.

"Kuroko?"

"_Close and yet so far_," was the reply, "_I am Kuro. I hurt people. Granted, not as much as you, but such a feat would be difficult even for someone like me."_

"Someone like…. Who are you? What are you?"

"_Listening wasn't ever your forte either was it? I told you who I am… as for what I am… I suppose I can be considered something like a spare part, another personality. I usually do not surface, I have no inclination for it. But I can assume control when Shiro is otherwise," _she tapped her head, _"incapacitated. We have met before but Shiro has been careful to keep my existence a secret so she has not told you about me, but I have been around since she was five years old. It has been only a recent development that I was able to assume full bodily control however, since after the prior incident with the Queen. Before, when she was fighting with you, I could only manipulate her enough to prevent her from using her teleportation to kill you as well as reigning in the strength of her blows to non-lethal levels. Not that you don't deserve some pain and suffering in return, but Kuroko would be devastated if she had been the one to kill you."_

Misaka was understandably confused. She remembered hearing the name before… when Kuroko was sick she had called out for someone called Kuro. Was this the same person? Or was it simply more trickery? The Queen could read memories so it was not impossible that she would know that. "How do I know you aren't simply under the Queen's sway and tricking me?" Then another question popped into her mind, "And where are Uiharu and Saten." The Queen had implied that they were in danger as well.

_"I tranquilized them earlier and dumped them in an alley. They had been taken over as well and had I allowed them to act as bait instead of myself things would have gone far more poorly for you."_

_"As for the matter of myself being under the Queen's control... You don't know. I don't either. That is the nature of her power. Perhaps now you understand what Shiro has been going through for the past couple months. It is the curse of insanity, to always doubt what is in front of you, being unable to distinguish illusion and reality, dream and nightmare. You may freely choose what to believe as it has little impact on the situation, you will do as I say regardless of what you believe?"_

Misaka's eyes narrowed, "And why exactly would I do that?"

"_Because no matter what you do I am planning on hunting down the Queen. The only way you could stop that is the incapacitate me. Otherwise you either accompany me and do as I say or you don't and go another way, leaving me to hunt her down on my own. So let us examine the results of each of those situations."_

"_One: You don't incapacitate me but you don't go along with me," _She began and reached into her bag,_ "That means I must make my own way to her. The likely result of that is that the Queen uses the same power that she used on this crowd to make everyone around me attack me. Even if I can avoid most of them I cannot avoid all conflict and if an entire crowd attacks me without someone like you who can deal with a large number of people non-lethally I'll be forced to resort to this," _She pulled the grenade launcher out of her bag, _"The Queen doesn't care about using civilians for her own purposes so I will doubtlessly be forced to fire explosive fragmentation grenades into a crowd of innocent people, likely killing several of them. Considering you had an option to stop me their blood would be on your hands."_

"What… you… you can't be serious… Kuroko wouldn't hurt anyone."

"_No she wouldn't, but I'm Kuro. I hurt people, it's what I do. Unlike her I do not feel things like empathy or guilt. I have no reservations about hurting or killing others,"_ Kuro noted the sparks that were now flowing from the pereskia's temples, _"I see you are considering option number two… incapacitating me and going ahead on your own. You're an electro-master so tell me, have you ever noticed my heartbeat? Do you know what's odd about it?"_

The sparks stopped immediately and she cocked an eyebrow. "Yes. The atriums beat isn't synchronous… but how is that relevant."

"_Those mistimed beats are the result of an Atrial fibrillation I suffered four months ago, Right when I moved in with you. The fibrillation was caused by a particularly powerful and sustained electric shock. It caused days of pain and by the time I could get to a doctor to look at it the two atriums had permanently fell out of sync. Currently I have an enormous amount of adrenaline running through my veins, making it even worse. An electric shock severe enough to render me unconscious would also cause it to worsen far enough to put my life in severe danger and as much as you are willing to hurt and torture little Shiro I don't think you would be willing to kill her."_

"_That only leaves option three. You accompany me on my hunt and do as I say. No one dies and all you have to do is suck up your precious little pride."_

Misaka was silent; stunned both by the teleporter's sheer gall for saying such a thing and the fact that she honestly couldn't see another option. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place and she was getting angrier and angrier. "You are not Kuroko," she seethed as she glared at the girl in front of her.

Kuro shrugged and put the grenade launcher away, "_No. I'm Kuro. She and I are different, but the body is the same so know that every ounce of pain you inflict upon me is inflicted upon her. More than that know that she is scared and suffering in an endless nightmare every second you waste trying to argue rather than swallowing your stupid pride and helping me stop the Queen and save her."_

"Fine," Misaka finally decided at her words. As reluctant as she was to do anything this… thing told her to, she was even more reluctant to let Kuroko suffer.

"_So you actually care about Shiro after all… kind of surprising actually."_

"Who's Shiro?"

Kuro rolled her eyes, _"Shiro is the one that you call Kuroko, the main personality. That much should at least have been obvious by context pereskia."_

"Why are you calling me that?"

"_As much as Shiro loves you I don't like you very much, which also should have been obvious. You are the cause of so much pain for Shiro yet she refuses to do anything about it because she is so enamored by you. A pereskia is a cactus with pretty little flowers on it, the closer you get the more it hurts you."_

"Are you going to just keep on insulting me? I thought Kuroko was suffering."

"_Very well, lead the way then, you know where she is correct?"_

"…don't you?"

"_No I do not. I have given thought to the possibilities but there doesn't seem to be any sort of clue."_

Misaka considered it again and suddenly had an idea. "this started two days ago right? That was the same day the glowing ESPers first showed up. Yesterday during your fight with that glowing teleporter I saw her wearing a suit that I've seen before. Though the logo was missing from it, it looked exactly like the suits that were created by some company called Vulcanus or something. Maybe they have something to do with this."

Kuro sighed, _"This is either serendipity or an unfortunate turn of events but I just so happen to know exactly what you are talking about. The company doesn't really exist in a sense but several documents and deals have their name and logo attached. The newest project is a series of rehabilitation facilities quite a distance from here. If everything is indeed connected there is a chance she is there, the timing fits well."_

"So you know where these rehabilitation facilities or whatever are?" Misaka asked, happily surprised that they actually had a lead now.

"_Yeah, but they are, as I said, quite a distance. We can assume that the Queen will not halt her attempt to attack us using anyone in the area, so it would be best if we avoided that. If we go by rooftop we can be relatively sure that she cannot catch us."_

"Can't you just teleport us there?"

"_I am incapable of teleportation actually, so the roofs are our best bet. Just try to keep up. There's a billboard on that building, you can use your power to reach it. I will make my own way up."_

* * *

Suddenly she was off, running at the building she had pointed out and scaling it with unnatural ease. Misaka joined her, like she had been told, magnetizing herself and the billboard, propelling her towards it but not fast enough for the impact to hurt her. While she did this Kuroko began analyzing a map to discover the best, most efficient but also the stealthiest, route to their destination.

"_Got it," _she said when she was finished, _"Just follow me."_ She said and she was off in a flash. Misaka was surprised at how quick she was, how far and high she could jump, how fast she could climb and generally move through the city. Even though Misaka was aided by her power, Kuroko still needed to wait for her at times.

Unfortunately the entire city couldn't all be traversed in this manner and eventually they were forced to descend. Before that Kuro put her armor on, changing in front of Misaka, much to the electro-master's embarrassment. She had brought the full suit plus padding but had needed to remove the helmet to make room for the grenade launcher, so she was still vulnerable to attacks to her head.

Once she had put on her armor they descended using the convenient awning that hung over the shop's door. When they went back onto the streets they were met with the expected resistance. Kuro let Misaka take them out while she figured out what to do since the rooftops were not a viable option any more.

"_The monorail goes into a tunnel near here, we can use that to avoid the people, unless you don't mind taken out everyone from here to the building. It will be good practice for when you hurt Kuroko later on."_

"Shut up!" Misaka yelled at her, tempted to fry her but remembering her words about the shared pain.

The pair walked over to the place where the monorail dipped gradually into the ground just before it became a tunnel. "How exactly do you expect us to get down?" Misaka asked. Kuro answered in action rather than words, grabbing Misaka and jumping down, putting her hand on the wall with the friction pads activated. She had used a similar tactic to save the puppy that had been stuck on the monorail tracks back when she had taken the suitcase from Jango the bounty hunter.

Once they touched the ground she let go of Misaka and they continued walking on in silence.

Soon they reached the other side of the tunnel and were forced to walk through the streets the rest of the way. Misaka took care of any people who attempted to attack them, dealing will all of the easily until an Anti-Skill truck began driving right at them, intent on running them over. Misaka was about to deal with it when Kuroko fired a grenade from her launcher directly at it, obliterating the front engine end causing it to continue skidding towards them, its front end sparking along the ground, until it finally stopped a couple inches away from her feet. The driver was perfectly safe but the van was totaled.

"_It seems my skill with this is improving."_

"Where did you even get that thing, and what the hell are you doing using it?"

"_I confiscated it from a criminal and did not have the opportunity to give it to Anti-Skill yet,"_ It was a half-truth, "_And Anti-Skill vans have considerable armoring so I was confident in my ability to destroy it without killing the driver. You meanwhile would have likely failed to deflect it in time."_ That was closer to a lie than the first one. Misaka would easily have taken care of it, but Kuro was paranoid as well and she didn't like putting her life in the pereskia's hands.

"Whatever, let's just get this over with so Kuroko will come back to me."

"_You sound scared."_

"I don't want Kuroko to suffer…" she said, sincerity in her voice.

"_You will cause her more suffering than anyone. But if you are content being a hypocrite then let us hurry towards the Queen."_

Misaka simply nodded, having no counter for that. It was more true than she wanted to think about.

So the two hurried their pace and soon arrived at the buildings they were looking for. It was a large complex that was still under construction. Kuroko led the way, through the unfinished corridors towards the more completed central portions. Finally they arrived to what looked to be the main room. Preparing themselves the two walked in to face the Queen.

* * *

Suddenly, as Misaka walked into the room Kuroko was suddenly struck by a hug lightning bolt that seemed to come… from Misaka herself? Her eyes widened as she fell forward, a sizable hole in her chest where her heart should be, and she looked at her hands. She hadn't shot anything had she? She looked towards Kuroko's body and her mouth fell open. What had she done?

Suddenly the room around her was covered in a thick shroud of darkness through which shifting forms were barely visible. She looked around in confusion and saw a massive demonic figure emerge from the cloud, eyes of fire with gnarled horns and blood red skin, covered in spikes and scales. Around its form was a bandolier of human skulls chained together.

Misaka's eyes widened as she attempted to fry it with a lightning bolt, only to realize that her power wasn't working. She tried again and again but nothing worked. The monster grinned as it towered over her.

Then she heard a voice to her right, "Misaka-san! Help!" cried Uiharu. She turned in time to see her and Saten cowering beneath a giant coiled snake comprised of lightning. Before she could do anything the snake struck the two girls who fell to the ground, their entire bodies charred beyond recognition.

Still they spoke. "Why Misaka," said Saten with pain and blame in her voice, "I thought you were a level five, but you can't even protect your friends with all your strength." Then the two girls turned to ash and blew away.

Before she could react another pair of voices called her name, this time in front of her. She looked and saw the demon which now had her mother and father in its grasp. "Help us Misaka! Help," they begged but Misaka was powerless as the demon slammed them into the ground sending blood flying in every direction.

Misaka fell to her knees. What was going on? Why was this happening? Why couldn't she help them? Why was she so weak?

* * *

Kuro watched as Misaka fell to the ground eyes wide, face paled, fear apparent in every movement, in every breath. Then she turned to the Queen, who smiled at her from across the spacious white room. The level five stood tall near the opposite wall. She was dressed in a body suit similar to the one that the teleporter from yesterday had worn. In addition to that there was a robotic looking device strapped over her arm. As Kuro had expected a golden yellow glow surrounded her. Unlike the teleporter the glow was massive and powerful, radiating like the sun or an angel.

"You know it might be hard to control you but once I have you produce the most excellent results," she said with a smile, "You brought her here just like I asked, and you even tortured her a little on the way. Really better than I could have asked for. I hope the people along the way didn't give you too many problems, but if she had just been able to walk in then where would be the fun in that? She might have suspected something. Now I take it you have that little disc with you. My newest set of minions tell me that it will make me even more powerful."

Kuro nodded obediently to which the Queen replied happily, "good good, put it in that container over there." she pointed to a small metal box across the room. "After that I'll take my revenge on Misaka-chan and if you behave yourself I might just forgive what you did last time. Maybe I'll even let you become my personal servant when I become the number one ESPer in Academy City."

Kuro glanced at the box and took out the CD case which held the data from the horns of Jericho, the culmination of weeks of hard work and the very thing she had promised that she would never let fall into the wrong hands. And now she was being told to give it to the one person who would abuse it most of all.

"It is not enough to tell whether a person is free or a servant if they are asked to do a task and they do it. What sets them apart is motivation. A servant does it because he was told to, a free man does it because they chose to," she threw the CD case across the room in the opposite direction from the indicated box, "I chose."

The Queen's eyes narrowed, "Even now you defy me?! How?! How are you able to resist, I am powerful enough to reduce the railgun herself to tears you are weak you should be on your knees. I am the Queen of Tokiwadai, Level five ESPer, you are a bug in comparison."

"You are right. My existence is nothing more than a splotch of paint. Ephemeral, of no true substance, a shadow on the wall of a cave. I am nothing but a bug, and that is why I will not kneel. As powerful as you are you cannot control an ant or a bee, their brains are so different from the humans that you can control that you cannot hope to wish to manipulate them. I am beyond your comprehension. Order me if you wish but I will not obey. Try to wipe the pathways to my memories but I will take another route. Flood me and fill me with fear or anger or any emotion you wish but they are not my feelings and will not sway my hand. I am a being who feels nothing and gives only pain. I'm Kuro. I hurt people."

"We'll just see about that," Misaki said as she began her psychological assault.

Kuro took a deep breath as a wave of paranoia and dread flooded over her and past, like water on teflon. _"Fear..."_ she said, _"A not unexpected weapon for one called the Queen. Let me ask you a question... are you like me or are you like Shiro? Do you feel nothing? Do you cause suffering without knowledge or regard for what you do? Or do you feel fear and sadness and anger like everyone else? Do you feel it more strongly? Do you understand the suffering you inflict and inflict it regardless?"_ She looked at the Queen and continued talking before she could respond, confident her words would get an answer without being told, _"do you want to know why I chose to come when I could have easily avoided you? I came here to kill you, which is actually why I wanted to thank you. Shiro is so squeamish when it comes to killing. But you've taken care of her for now so I can make your death as horrific and painful as possible. After all, I see no reason why someone who has caused Shiro so much suffering should have a death free from agony. I don't know whether you feel emotions or not but I'm sure you feel pain and I'm sure a live incindiary grenade lodged in one's throat would cause considerable pain when it went off. At least before the inevitable gruesome death."_

She slowly walked up to the Queen whose eyes were wide with fear as Kuroko simply continued. She would kill if necessary but she would prefer to break her mind like she had done with Rya, that way she wouldn't need to kill. _"And you want to know something else? While I hurt you and torture you and maim you know that I do not hate you. I feel nothing towards you. What I do is for a single purpose. I have existed for one single purpose, to protect Shiro from things she cannot protect herself from. You are an enemy to be eliminated, that is all. You may cry and plead and beg for your life but it will not change that fact. You cannot appeal to emotions I don't have."_

She finally reached the Queen who at this point was backed against the wall. _"And the most ironic part is that you created me in a way. You pushed Shiro so far that I was forced to step in. It was your power that changed her brain just enough to allow me control of the body. So in a couple seconds when your screams of pain begin filling the air know that you are to blame for everything. With every second of your agony know that your arrogance created the monster who will now rip you apart."_ She took one final step towards the Queen.

* * *

Then something unexpected happened. The Queen fought back. It was a panicked movement, likely more on reflex than anything else, but with her robotically superstrong arm it was enough to crack several ribs on impact and send her flying back at an impressive speed. When she collided with the opposite wall she heard something else break and pure black blood began spilling from her chest

Stunned at the sight, at the action of having done such a thing, the Queen's concentration faltered, freeing Misaka from her nightmaric reverie.

She wished she hadn't been freed as soon as she saw what was behind her. She approached the girl, hoping hard that this was just another illusion, but the heavy scent of blood. She put her hand on the teleporter's shoulders and as she realized she could feel her she confirmed that this wasn't an illusion. "Kuroko…" she said, a fear even greater than before in her voice.

Kuro sat there for a second before realizing that the wound was fatal. She realized this when a tear began to roll down her cheek. She touched the streak of water it left behind and chuckled. _"I never thought I'd be the one to cry…"_ she mused_, "I guess this means that it's finally time to give up…"_

Kuro touched the necklace that dangled from the electro-masters neck, then she placed her bloodied hand gingerly on Misaka's face and she felt her energy begin to slip away, causing her to feel more and more drained by the second. 'It was such a blur back then. Even with the little bit I kept from yesterday I still don't know if I'm doing this right. Still it is best to try... after all... Shiro would be sad if the pereskia died. Hmm...' She opened her mouth as she thought of Shiro and what she would do if she were here. She spoke to the pereskia softly, the ice in her voice melting away along with her ebbing life force _"Shiro would want me to tell you that she loves you." _As soon as she said that she lowered her hand and began to lose consciousness. Her last thought before she slipped into the darkness of sleep was, 'I finally remember the words to Shiro's little lullaby...' She hummed the tune and sang it in her head.

_O white white moon in a black black sky_

_With a warm white light to guide me by_

_Then the warm white light begins to dim_

_O moon what is wrong you look so thin_

_O big moon O big moon slow slow slow_

_O white moon O white moon please don't go_

_Moon moon my only friend I love you so_

_The rabbit and his mochi hide away_

_All your seas are shrinking every day_

_Now the sphere of white is split in two_

_Where has the rest gone what do I do?_

_O half-moon O half-moon slow slow slow_

_O white moon O white moon don't you go_

_Moon moon my only friend I love you so_

_Thin little crescent white barely shown_

_Now you're gone too you've left me alone_

_Why have you left? to where have you run?_

_Why did this happen? What have I done?_

_Little moon little moon why'd you go?_

_Moon moon my only friend I loved you so_

* * *

_shiroi shiroi tsuki, kuroi kuroi yozora de,_

_atatakai hikari de Kuroko wo michibikou,_

_atatakai shiroi hikari kierihajimeru,_

_doushite tsuki, sonnani anata ga ususou,_

_ookii tsuki, ookii tsuki, yukkuri, yukkuri,_

_O shiro tsuki, shiro tsuki, ikanaide kudasai,_

_tsuki, Kuroko no yuitsu no tomodachi, aisuru,_

_ima, tsuki no usagi to mochi ga kakushiteiru,_

_hinihini, zenbu anata no umi ga chijindeiru,_

_ima, shiroi tama ga hanbun ni kaketearu,_

_hoka ha doko ni itta, doko ni,__ka shira, Doushio?_

_han tsuki, han tsuki, yukkuri yukkuri han tsuki,_

_shiro tsuki, shiro tsuki, ikanaide kudasai,_

_tsuki, Kuroko no yuitsu no tomodachi, aisuru,_

_usui yumiharishiro wo karoujite miseru,_

_ima, itta anata ni mo kuroko ga suterareta,_

_doushite itta ka shira? Doko ni nigeta ka shira?_

_doushite okotta no? nani wo kuroko ga shita no?_

_chiisana tsuki, chiisana tsuki, doushite itta?_

_tsuki, Kuroko no yuitsu no tomodachi, aishita,__ [3]_

* * *

**Important note (again): There is another chapter, read that.**

* * *

[1]: Yakuza, in addition to being the name of the "Japanese mafia", is also the slang term for a particular really bad losing hand (8-9-3) in the card game Oichu-Kabu which is the origin of the gang's name in the first place.

[2]: As opposed to a Gemstone which is a natural ESPer.

[3]: Thanks to EtherealFox for helping to translate my English into Japanese.


	51. Toaru Jikken no Saigo

Toaru Jikken no Saigo

A Certain End of Experimentation

* * *

B-Ba Bum,B-Ba… Her heart stopped in an instant. Misaka listened but she wasn't breathing either. She showed no sign of life.

Tears poured down the electro-masters face as she sobbed hoping that this was just another nightmare, another horrible illusion. She'd rather face a million demons and monsters more horrible than humans could imagine than be forced to face this reality.

The Queen was just as similarly stunned. She honestly hadn't meant to kill her. As much as she said it she wasn't even planning to kill Misaka, just make her miserable for her arrogance.

She shook her head, getting refocused. Just as she did Misaka stood up and turned around, the most frightening look imaginable on her face. The Queen quickly tried to regain control but it wasn't working. WHY WASN'T IT WORKING?! She had been more than powerful enou…

Her eyes widened as she saw the streak of blood on the girl's face radiating a jet black energy that that began to travel all over Misaka's body, turning from a black cloudy mass to an electric blue glow that surrounded the electro-master. Colossal bolts of lightning discharged from her forehead leaving deep black burns in the concrete where they touched.

The Queen's life flashed past her eyes as Misaka raised her hand to her and a massive bolt of lightning hit her directly. A millisecond after it hit she fell to the ground, her body smoking.

Misaka was still shaking and breathing hard and several second passed as she turned to make sure that Kuroko was still in the same state. She was, which set off even more sobbing from the girl.

* * *

Suddenly an unfamiliar voice spoke up. It was light and calm and though the Japanese was flawless there was an unmistakable accent. "An unexpected outcome to be sure," the voice said. Misaka looked over to see a tall white and blue robed man with long white hair walk into the room. He bent down and pick up the CD case which had been flung onto the floor earlier, "Even ignoring the theoretical impossibility of an ESPer being able to do that, I still would not have expected someone so new to the art to have performed such a complex spell after encountering it only once before."

"Spell? What in the world are you talking about? Who are you?" where had this nutjob come from Misaka wondered.

"My name is Lammington but I doubt that has any significance to you so suffice it to say that I am the one behind this entire conflict. From a little hypnotic suggestion to the principal of your school to arranging the battle to you standing here right now." It was a half-truth. He was ignoring the roles of his superiors and subordinates in the conflict. It was his project though so he accepted full responsibility for the results of it.

Misaka's fists clenched as the lightning which had momentarily subsided rose with even greater intensity, "It's your fault? Why? Why in the world would you do this what can you possibly hope to gain."

Lammington sighed as he walked over to where the Queen lay unconscious. "To explain would take far too long only to have you scoff at what I had to say. If you condense it down I did it because I wanted to help increase the potential of ESPers. If you condense it down further however I suppose it all boils down to the fact that I was told to."

"YOU WERE TOLD TO! THAT'S YOUR REASON?!" She screamed as she fired a powerful lightning bolt, equal to the one that had fried the Queen. Lammington frowned at this and raised his hand. Two small silver points of light shot out the sides and traced out a circle with their comet like tails just before the lightning bolt was fired. It crashed into the center of the circle and, despite there being no visible barrier, splayed out in all directions, hitting the floor, ceiling and walls.

"In the end that is how it is. I could attempt to justify but justification is useless. I will not make excuses," he said as calm as ever despite the powerful lightning striking an inch from his otherwise unprotected palm.

Misaka's furious, seething anger was further enflamed by every word and her lightning got even more powerful, "YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE A REASON?! DO YOU KNOW THE PAIN YOU'VE CAUSED?!" Now over a billion volts, more power than she had ever had rushing through her at once, struck the circle but still none pierced, each lightning bolt split deflected with greatest ease.

"For that I suppose an apology is in order. I did make attempts to minimize casualties but no matter how hard I try collateral damage will surely be sustained."

Misaka stopped her lightning assault… "Collateral damage…" she repeated slowly, "so that's it…" she took a deep breath and fished a coin from her pocket, "that's all it is to you? That's all she is to you? Well she's a little more important to me you know. An apology isn't gonna cut it. Not for what you did…" she flipped the coin in the air. She didn't care how strong that shield was, she would shatter it into a million pieces, "I'll never forgive you for taking her from me!" She yelled as she flicked the coin.

As she did Lammington dropped his hand to his side, disengaging his shield spell. After all, the shield would easily block even such a powerful attack if he left it up. "An apology isn't enough," he agreed. As the coin sped at over 2500 meters a second through the air, hitting him directly through the lower chest, blasting a massive hole through his torso and making an even larger hole in the wall behind him as red and silver blood sprayed out behind him. "You might want to get her to a doctor or something," he said with a smile as he fell to the floor, more blood pouring out of him by the second.

* * *

Misaka's eyes widened. She'd… She'd… She ran forward only to run into an invisible barrier, blocking her from getting closer.

She shook her head, She'd worry about that later… he was right. She needed to get Kuroko to the hospital… maybe there was a chance she could be brought back. There was nothing she could do for him.

She hefted the younger girl into her arms and ran out of the building.

* * *

A tall suited man walked into a spacious white room in the middle of the still ongoing construction of the Vulcanus companies newest rehabilitation facilities, going over to the blood spattered opposite wall and the two bodies that lay there. He was quivering slightly but he tried to keep a level head.

The man touched the black, white, and vermillion flower pinned to his lapel and sighed in relief. He looked at the man in the white robe which was now stained red and silver by blood. "Such a terrible mess you made," Vyers began in French, his voice beginning to calm as well, "don't you think you should have made your suicide a little more tidy?"

"It is acceptance of consequences mon ami, not suicide," the seemingly dead man corrected as he looked up at the man in front of him, " If I had thought that she could have killed me with that attack then I wouldn't have let it hit me. For right now I am fine. What about little miss Maid of Orleans[1], Kuroko I believe her name was?"

"I did as you said. I put her body into stasis as quickly as I could after she got hurt. She'll be fine until she gets to the hospital, Asclepius will take care of her once she gets there. I think the other girl got a bit frightened when her friend's heart stopped beating, seemed to mistake it for death…" Vyers explained as he knelt beside his friend, "up we go Lammington,"he told him as he helped the man up. The blood soaked into his suit, thoroughly ruining the fine silk, but he found himself utterly devoid of care for this inconvenience.

"I don't believe he goes by that anymore. It gets slightly confusing I know, I met him when he was called something like "Iron-Crutch Li" or something. Regardless of his name though I trust his skill, she will be fine. Even were it not him she has potential, and power. I doubt such a wound would take her more than a day to heal from," Lammington leaned on his friend, shrugging off the immense pain. The wound had already stopped bleeding by now and was slowly beginning to heal, but this left him weaker than his wound and blood loss had already made him dizzy and weak. He needed his tea right about now. "This brings back memories doesn't it Vyers?"

"I guess," Vyers replied as he walked his injured friend outside, "Must be 74 years ago now since we were last in one of these situations though. And besides, that was an execution by firing squad. I've dragged you away from hangings, burnings, drownings, shootings, stonings, and that one unpleasant experience with a guillotine back home during that awful revolution. This is the first injury either of us has sustained from a railgun though, and it was definitely the messiest scene I've had to drag you away from. All that blood worried me you know."

"I'm sorry for worrying you my friend. But this time I actually hurt someone else, even if it was beneficial in the long run, so I deserve to get hurt. With this method the one I hurt gets to express their displeasure and I can be get the consequence I deserve without being killed. If I hadn't deflected that guillotine blade then it would have killed me, and I hardly deserved death for that silly little incident."

Vyers found himself laughing as he helped the bleeding man into the car that was waiting outside, "I suppose if it keeps your conscience clear then it is all right. As long as you survive and stay with me. Now come on mon ami, we need to get to compiling our report."

Lammington paused to consider this and he looked at the CD that was in his pocket, "artificial magical and natural AIM field enhancement coupled with modulated output and resonant amplification… he is really planning on awakening that hellspawn Kakine isn't he?"

"The aspect of Isis cannot be mastered naturally, not since the fall of Samael. The closest that they come is a magician of the void like yourself. The entire point of Academy City's power development program is to create a master of Isis artificially. They cannot be awoken naturally either so this 'Call of Rapture' that he designed is the best chance he has of doing so. Our work along with the body crystal that the Kiharas designed."

At the mention of that name Lammington's face twisted in disgust, "an evil I haven't seen in years runs through that family. Which makes me question even more if it was right to do what we did. If it was the Railgun we were enhancing perhaps I would find the sacrifices that we have made to be fitting, but our target is not so righteous, and the power he has is more than Aleister seems to have reckoned. He does not respect hell nearly enough, he does not understand its power. My only comfort is that Kakine does not seem to either."

"I am not agreeing with the concept of it, in fact I am a little disappointed that it succeeded. It might have been better if it had failed, if the power of a level five's AIM field was enough to rip them apart when enhanced, then the hellspawn would have less potential power to abuse. Though as much harm as he could cause he could also do good as you have done with your similar power. Besides if we had not done it then someone who cared less about collateral damage would have."

"...Speaking of that, what will happen with that other girl, the unpleasant, bossy one with a cruel streak worthy of the good Marquis Francois[2]?"Lammington asked as he settled into the hot leather seat of the Bentley. Lammington was not of greatest disposition to the English but he did like this car.

"Master Crowley has already arranged to send someone over to deal with her. I was assured that he would treat her with mercy," Vyers told him as he climbed into the driver's seat. He was confident in his boss's ability to handle things, though that ability to handle things also worried him as the man would just as soon send an assassin as a jailer.

* * *

The Queen slowly began to wake up. Her head was aching and her body hurt. She felt something beneath her chin and she could vaguely feel the presence of someone else standing near her. She slowly opened her eyes to see where she was and who was near her. She was in the same room that she had collapsed in, but it was empty now; empty except for the beautiful girl who was crouching in front of her. The girl was around Misaki's age, perhaps a bit older, clearly foreign with long, straight naturally blond hair-unlike her own which was dyed-, a dazzling smile, and a pair of the most stunning jade green eyes. She was tall, her breasts only slightly smaller than the Queen's, though that was with the pads in so naturally she would be bigger. She wore a sky blue blouse and skirt and had a six pointed star dangling from a pendant around her neck.

The green-eyed stranger held up The Queen's head with a hand placed below her chin, tilting her head so that the injured girl was looking up at her. "You poor girl…" she cooed in a beautiful voice, "look at you, so battered and hurt… Don't worry though, **I'll make it alllll better,"**she consoled the pitiful girl in front of her. As the blond said this her voice shifted to a harmonic, hypnotic tone; a voice of silk and spikes. The Queen's eyes widened as she realized what the other girl was doing, but it was too late. The stranger's jade eyes glittered as she spoke in her voice of silk and spikes, "**You should know better than anyone just how easy it is to control a human's will and make it your own. You did it so frivolously without a care who you hurt. Are you really so arrogant, though, to think that you were the only one who was capable of such manipulation and that you were immune to it yourself?"**

The Queen found herself helpless and more than a little scared as this girl paralyzed her, making her unable to even activate her ability, "**Don't worry though,"**the blond continued with a pleased smile, "**I promise I'll take good care of you…"**As she spoke she drew something out from behind her back that made the Queen's eyes widen in fear, "**now… would you kindly…"**

* * *

[1]: The Maid of Orleans refers to the nickname of Joan of Arc.

[2]: More commonly known as the Marquis de Sade.

* * *

Author's Note: Well that's the end of Book number one of the Final Judgment Trilogy. My sequel is already out so I hope you enjoy that too.

Oh and I hope I didn't worry you with last chapter. Know that I do not take character death lightly and it won't be until the second book when Kuroko dies. Speaking of that…

* * *

Coming Soon: Knight fall, a sacrifice made and battered hearts mended.

* * *

I worked hard to keep knowledge of a sequel from my readers until it was time but because I am a person of my word all these "Coming Soon's" that clearly had nothing to do with the story may have tipped you off that things might go beyond this, plus all the things upon which I have had yet to expound.

If you have any more questions about what happened in my story or if you want an explanation for someone's power or something similar then simply ask in a review or PM me and I will add it to the bonus chapter which I will post after this one when I get my first request. I will then update it whenever I get a new question, or at least reply saying that it will be answered in time.

* * *

Dedications: Wow… I really have to dedicate this to everyone who's read up to this point. Reading this long a fanfiction can be a daunting task and I admire your perseverance and thank you for it.


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